* gdb.threads/linux-dp.exp: Unset 'seen' before 'array set'.
[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* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
86 target.
87
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88* New commands
89
90 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
91 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
92
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93 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
94 several hits.
95
57651221 96 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
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97 C++ and Java objects.
98
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99 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
100 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
101 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
102 configured with '--with-python'.
103
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104 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
105 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
106 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
107 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
108 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
109 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
110 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
111
112 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
113 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
114 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
115 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
116
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117* New targets
118
119Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 120HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 121
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122* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
123 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
124 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
125 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
126 evaluates to true.
127
128* New options
129
130set breakpoint condition-evaluation
131show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 132 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
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133 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
134 available mode.
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135 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
136 target.
137
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138set auto-load off
139 Disable auto-loading globally.
140
141show auto-load
142 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
143
144set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
145show auto-load gdb-scripts
146 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
147
148set auto-load python-scripts on|off
149show auto-load python-scripts
150 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
151
152set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
153show auto-load local-gdbinit
154 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
155
156set auto-load libthread-db on|off
157show auto-load libthread-db
158 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
159
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160set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
161show auto-load safe-path
162 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
163 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
164
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165set debug auto-load on|off
166show debug auto-load
167 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
168
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169* New remote packets
170
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171z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
172
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173 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
174 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
175 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
176 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
177
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178QProgramSignals:
179
180 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
181 program without GDB involvement.
182
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183* New command line options
184
185--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
186 before loading inferior.
187--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
188 execute it before loading inferior.
189
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190*** Changes in GDB 7.4
191
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192* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
193 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
194 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
195 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
196 inferior changes.
197
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198* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
199 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
200
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201* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
202 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
203 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
204 target hardware watchpoint.
205
206 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
207 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
208 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
209 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
210
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211* Python scripting
212
32d1c362 213 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 214 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
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215 existing one.
216
3a7bf607 217 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
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218 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
219 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
220 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
221 now "message", which just prints the error message without
222 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 223
baacfb07 224 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 225 Python API.
713389e0 226
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227 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
228 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 229 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
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230 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
231 corresponding value.
232
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233 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
234 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
235 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
236 on GDB start-up.
237
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238 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
239 static_block will return the global and static blocks
240 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
241 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
242
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243 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
244
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245 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
246 "gdb.breakpoints".
247
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248 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
249 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
250 available in the CLI.
251
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252 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
253 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
254 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
255 "some_type.items()".
256
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257 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
258 new object file.
259
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260 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
261 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
262 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
263 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
264 any anonymous fields.
265
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266* MI changes
267
268 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
269 "solib-event".
270
271 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
272 "=breakpoint-modified".
273
274 ** New command -ada-task-info.
275
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276* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
277 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
278 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
279 lives.
280
281 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
282 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
283 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
284 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
285 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
286
287 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
288 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
289
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290* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
291 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
292 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
293 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
294 use this option to specify where to find it.
295
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296* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
297 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
298 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
299 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
300 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
301 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
302 section in the user manual for more details.
303
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304* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
305 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
306 become available after that.
307
71eba9c2 308* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 309
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310* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
311 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
312 gcc version 4.7.
313
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314* New commands
315
316!SHELL COMMAND
317 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
318 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
319
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320* Changed commands
321
322watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
323 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
324 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
325
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326info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
327 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
328 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
329
71eba9c2 330info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
331 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
332 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
333 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
334 name starts with a hyphen.
335
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336collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
337 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
338 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
339 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
340 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
341 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
342 number of bytes that will be collected.
343
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344tstart [NOTES]
345 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
346 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
347 setting the variable trace-notes.
348
349tstop [NOTES]
350 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
351 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
352 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
353 trace-stop-notes.
354
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355* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
356 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
357 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
358 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
359 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
360 is running.
361
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362* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
363 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
364 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
365
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366* New options
367
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368set extended-prompt
369show extended-prompt
370 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
371 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
372 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
373 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
374 prompt is displayed.
375
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376set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
377show print entry-values
378 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
379 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
380 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
381
382set debug entry-values
383show debug entry-values
384 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
385 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
386
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387set basenames-may-differ
388show basenames-may-differ
389 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
390 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
391 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
392 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
393 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
394 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
395 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
396 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
397
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398set trace-user
399show trace-user
400set trace-notes
401show trace-notes
402 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
403 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
404 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
405 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
406
407set trace-stop-notes
408show trace-stop-notes
409 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
410 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
411 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
412 started by someone else.
413
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414* New remote packets
415
416QTEnable
417
418 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
419
420QTDisable
421
422 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
423
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424QTNotes
425
426 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
427
428qTP
429
430 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
431
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432qTMinFTPILen
433
434 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
435 be placed.
436
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437* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
438 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
439
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440* New targets
441
442Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
443
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444* New Simulators
445
446Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
447
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448*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
449
450* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
451
d6e00af6 452*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 453
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454* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
455 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
456 matches the given regular expression.
457
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458* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
459
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460* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
461 dumping the instruction opcodes.
462
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463* New command line options
464
465-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
466 This is mostly for testing purposes.
467
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468* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
469 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
470
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471* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
472 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
473 source path list instead of augmenting it.
474
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475* GDB now understands thread names.
476
477 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
478 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
479
480 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
481 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
482
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483* OpenCL C
484 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
485 has been integrated into GDB.
486
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487* Python scripting
488
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489 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
490 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
491 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
492
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493 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
494 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
495 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
496 and allows for more dynamic content.
497
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498 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
499 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
500 have an is_valid method.
501
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502 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
503 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
504 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
505
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506 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
507
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508 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
509 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
510 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
511 that function like so:
512
513 result = some_value (10,20)
514
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515 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
516 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
517 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
518
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519 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
520 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
521 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
522 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
523 New function: register_pretty_printer.
524
525 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
526 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
527
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528 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
529
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530 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
531 selected thread.
532
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533 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
534 holds the thread's name.
535
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536 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
537 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 538 occurring in the process being debugged.
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539 The following events are currently supported:
540 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
541 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
542 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
543
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544* C++ Improvements:
545
546 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
547 instantiation. For example, if you have:
548
549 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
550
551 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
552 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
553 was added to GCC 4.5.
554
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555 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
556 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
557 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
558 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
559 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
560 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
561
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562* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
563 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
564 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
565 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
566 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
567
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568* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
569 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
570 execution to a label.
571
572* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
573 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
574 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
575 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
576
b56df873 577* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 578 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
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579 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
580 of scope.
581
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582* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
583
584 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
585 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
586 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
587 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
588 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
589 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
590
591 (gdb) info threads
592 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
593
594 While now you see this:
595
596 (gdb) info threads
597 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
598
599 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
600 dumps.
601
602 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
603 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
604 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
605 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
606
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TJB
607* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
608 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
609 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
610 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
611 section in the user manual for more details.
612
248c9dbc
JB
613* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
614
1aee7009
JB
615 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
616 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 617
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MF
618 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
619
44603653
JB
620* New native configurations
621
622ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
623
91021223
MF
624* New targets:
625
626Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
627
6e1bb179
JB
628* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
629 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
630 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
631 in the GDB user manual.
632
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TT
633* Guile support was removed.
634
448a92bf
MF
635* New features in the GNU simulator
636
637 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
638
66ee2731
MF
639 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
640
76b8507d 641*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 642
ba25b921
PA
643* Shared library support for remote targets by default
644
645 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
646 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
647 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
648 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
649 was always disabled for such configurations.
650
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SW
651* C++ Improvements:
652
653 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
654
655 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
656 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
657 For example:
658 namespace A
659 {
660 class B { };
661 void foo (B) { }
662 }
663 ...
664 A::B b
665 foo(b)
666 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
667 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
668 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
669
670 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
671
672 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
673 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
674 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
675 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
676 entry.
677 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
678 mentioned flavors of operators.
679
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DE
680 ** static const class members
681
682 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
683 class definition has been fixed.
684
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PM
685* Windows Thread Information Block access.
686
687 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
688 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
689 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
690 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
691 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
692 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
693
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694* Static tracepoints
695
696 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
697 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
698 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
699 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
700 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
701 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
702 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
703 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
704 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
705 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
706 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
707 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
708 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
709 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
710 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
711 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
712 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
713 the "New remote packets" section below.
714
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SS
715* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
716
717 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
718 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
719 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
720 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
721
722* Observer mode
723
724 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
725 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
726 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
727 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
728 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
729 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
730 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
731
732* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
733 current thread.
734
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735* New remote packets
736
737qGetTIBAddr
738
739 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
740
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PA
741qRelocInsn
742
743 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
744 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
745 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
746 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
747 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
748 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
749
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PA
750qTfSTM, qTsSTM
751
752 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
753
754qTSTMat
755
756 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
757 program.
758
759qXfer:statictrace:read
760
761 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
762 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
763 to gdb's qSupported query.
764
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SS
765QAllow
766
767 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
768
769QTDPsrc
770
771 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
772 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
773
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DE
774* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
775 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
776 a directory.
777
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PA
778* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
779
0fb4aa4b
PA
780 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
781 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
782 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
783 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
784
785 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
786 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
787 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
788 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
789 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
790 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
791 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
792
793 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
794 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 795
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796 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
797
c8d5aac9
L
798* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
799 it understands register description.
800
7c953934
TT
801* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
802
8685c86f
L
803* X86 general purpose registers
804
805 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
806 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
807 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
808 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
809 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
810
95a42b64 811* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
812 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
813 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
814 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
815 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
816 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 817
8bd10a10
CM
818* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
819 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
820 in the specified file.
821
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PA
822* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
823 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
824 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
825 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
826 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
827 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
828 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
829 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
830 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
831 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
832
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PA
833* New commands
834
f1421989
HZ
835eval template, expressions...
836 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
837 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
838
ab38a727
PA
839set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
840show target-file-system-kind
841 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
842 names.
843
6149aea9
PA
844save breakpoints <filename>
845 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
846 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
847 definitions, use the `source' command.
848
849`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
850is now deprecated.
851
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PA
852info static-tracepoint-markers
853 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
854
855strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
856 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
857 function, line, address, or marker ID.
858
ca11e899
SS
859set observer on|off
860show observer
861 Enable and disable observer mode.
862
863set may-write-registers on|off
864set may-write-memory on|off
865set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
866set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
867set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
868set may-interrupt on|off
869 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
870 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
871 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
872 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
873 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
874 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
875 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
876
877set record memory-query on|off
878show record memory-query
879 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
880 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
881
53a71c06
CR
882* Changed commands
883
884disassemble
885 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
886
f3e9a817
PM
887* Python scripting
888
9279c692
JB
889** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
890 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
891 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
892 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
893 GDB using Python' in the manual.
894
adc36818 895** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
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PM
896 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
897 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
898 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 899
fa33c3cd 900** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
901 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
902
903** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
904
905** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 906
967cf477
DE
907** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
908
8a1ea21f
DE
909** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
910 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
911 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
912
a7bdde9e
VP
913* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
914there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
915tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
916regular breakpoints.
917
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PA
918* New targets
919
920ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
921
6aecb9c2
JB
922* D language support.
923 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
924 language.
925
431e49aa
TJB
926* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
927 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
928 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
929 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
930 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
931
932* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
933 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
934 conditions of the form:
935
936 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
937
938 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
939 interface mentioned above.
940
bfbf3774 941*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 942
4eef138c
TT
943* C++ Improvements
944
945 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
946
947 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
948 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
949 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
950 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
951 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
952
4eef138c
TT
953 ** Bug Fixes
954
955 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
956 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
957 qualified name.
958
959 ** Cast Operators
960
961 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
962 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
963
2d1c1221
ME
964* New targets
965
966Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 967Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
968
969* New Simulators
970
971Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 972Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 973
6c95b8df
PA
974* Multi-program debugging.
975
976 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
977 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
978 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
979 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
980 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
981 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
982 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
983 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
984
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SS
985* New tracing features
986
987 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
988
989 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
990
991 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
992 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
993 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
994 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
995 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
996 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
997 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
998 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
999 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1000 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 1001
d5551862 1002 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
1003
1004 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1005 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1006 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1007 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1008 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1009 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1010 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1011 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1012 the regular trace command.
1013
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SS
1014 ** Disconnected tracing
1015
1016 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1017 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1018 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1019 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1020 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1021
00bf0b85
SS
1022 ** Trace files
1023
1024 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1025 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1026 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1027 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1028 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1029 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1030 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
1031
1032 ** Circular trace buffer
1033
1034 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1035 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1036 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1037 not be available for all target agents.
1038
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PP
1039* Changed commands
1040
1041disassemble
1042 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1043 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1044
0fe7935b
DJ
1045info variables
1046 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1047 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1048
fb2e7cb4
JB
1049source
1050 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1051 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1052 support.
1053
1054 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1055 "set script-extension" (see below).
1056
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PA
1057* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1058
399cd161
MS
1059record save [<FILENAME>]
1060 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1061 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1062
1063record restore <FILENAME>
1064 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1065 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1066
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PA
1067add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1068 Add a new inferior.
1069
1070clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1071 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1072 inferior has loaded.
1073
1074remove-inferior ID
1075 Remove an inferior.
1076
1077maint info program-spaces
1078 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1079
9a7071a8
JB
1080set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1081show remote interrupt-sequence
1082 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1083 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1084 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1085 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1086 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1087
1088set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1089show remote interrupt-on-connect
1090 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1091 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1092 Linux kernel.
1093
1094set remotebreak [on | off]
1095show remotebreak
1096Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1097
f61e138d
SS
1098tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1099 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1100
1101info tvariables
1102 List trace state variables and their values.
1103
1104delete tvariable $NAME ...
1105 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1106
6da95a67
SS
1107teval EXPR, ...
1108 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1109 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1110
7a697b8d
SS
1111ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1112 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1113
b0f02ee9
JK
1114* New expression syntax
1115
1116 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1117 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1118
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PA
1119* New options
1120
1121set follow-exec-mode new|same
1122show follow-exec-mode
1123 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1124 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1125 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1126
236f1d4d
SS
1127set default-collect EXPR, ...
1128show default-collect
1129 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1130 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1131 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1132
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SS
1133set disconnected-tracing
1134show disconnected-tracing
1135 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1136 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1137 upon disconnection.
1138
4daf5ac0
SS
1139set circular-trace-buffer
1140show circular-trace-buffer
1141 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1142 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1143 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1144 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1145
fb2e7cb4
JB
1146set script-extension off|soft|strict
1147show script-extension
1148 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1149 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1150 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1151 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1152 evaluation failed.
1153 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1154
2b71fc8e
JB
1155set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1156show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1157 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1158 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1159 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1160 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1161 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1162 is on.
1163
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TT
1164* Python API Improvements
1165
1166 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1167 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1168 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1169
1170 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1171 `is_base_class' attribute.
1172
1173 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1174
1175 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1176 evaluate an expression.
1177
f61e138d
SS
1178* New remote packets
1179
1180QTDV
1181 Define a trace state variable.
1182
1183qTV
1184 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1185
d5551862
SS
1186QTDisconnected
1187 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1188
4daf5ac0
SS
1189QTBuffer:circular
1190 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1191
d5551862
SS
1192qTfP, qTsP
1193 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1194
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MS
1195* Bug fixes
1196
1197Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1198
6e0e5977
JB
1199Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1200much more reliable. In particular:
1201 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1202 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1203 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1204 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1205 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1206 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1207 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1208 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1209 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1210 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1211 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1212 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1213 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1214 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1215 non-threaded programs.
1216
93c26624
JK
1217PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1218This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1219libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1220executable program.
1221
abc7453d 1222*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 1223
4efc6507
DE
1224* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1225dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1226them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1227for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1228"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1229
782b2b07
SS
1230* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1231breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1232or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1233the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1234for tracepoint actions.
1235
53a71c06
CR
1236* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1237raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1238modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 1239
e7a8dbfb
HZ
1240* Process record and replay
1241
1242 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1243 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1244 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1245 execute commands.
1246
64644d9b
MS
1247* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1248step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1249set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1250reverse execution.
1251
b9412953
DD
1252* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1253feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
12542.6.28 or later.
1255
6c7a06a3
TT
1256* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1257target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1258char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1259literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1260U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1261`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1262system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1263the installation instructions for more information.
1264
f1838a98
UW
1265* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1266remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1267with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1268the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1269
55333a84
DE
1270* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1271and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1272
7f6a6314
PM
1273* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1274now complete on file names.
1275
65d12d83
TT
1276* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1277completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1278For instance, consider:
1279
1280 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1281 # struct example variable;
1282 (gdb) p variable.
1283
1284If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1285completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1286
edb3359d
DJ
1287* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1288the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1289
2fae03e8
TT
1290* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1291operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1292macros.
1293
47a3467a 1294* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
1295the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1296implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1297
1298* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1299registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1300can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1301and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 1302
08388c79
DE
1303* New remote packets
1304
1305qSearch:memory:
1306 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1307
a6f3e723
SL
1308QStartNoAckMode
1309 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1310 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1311 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1312
d7713ae0
EZ
1313vKill
1314 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1315 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1316
07e059b5
VP
1317qXfer:osdata:read
1318 Obtains additional operating system information
1319
47a3467a
PA
1320qXfer:siginfo:read
1321qXfer:siginfo:write
1322 Read or write additional signal information.
1323
060871df
PA
1324* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1325
1326 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1327 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1328 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1329
c055b101 1330* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 1331DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
1332
1333* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
1334and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1335`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 1336
31fffb02
CS
1337* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1338with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1339
88d8a8e0
JB
1340* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1341
7f99b190
JB
1342* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1343
ccd213ac
DJ
1344* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1345which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1346
1fddbabb 1347* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 1348list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 1349
a0ef4274
DJ
1350* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1351conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1352have also been fixed.
1353
bfb8797a 1354* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
1355From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1356are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 1357
71c25dea
TT
1358* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1359example, given:
1360
1361 template<typename T> class C { };
1362 C<char const *> c;
1363
1364GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1365
1366 ptype C<char const *>
1367 ptype C<char const*>
1368 ptype C<const char *>
1369 ptype C<const char*>
1370
ccd213ac
DJ
1371* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1372
1373 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1374 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1375
7ae0e2a2
UW
1376 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1377 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1378 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1379
a6f3e723
SL
1380 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1381 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1382
da8bd9a3
DJ
1383 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1384 gdbserver.
1385
d70e31dd
DE
1386 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1387 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1388
1389 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1390 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1391 as appropriate.
1392
d57a3c85
TJB
1393* Python scripting
1394
1395 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1396 available is determined at configure time.
1397
d8906c6f
TJB
1398 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1399
aadc346a
JB
1400* Ada tasking support
1401
1402 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1403 been introduced:
1404
1405 info tasks
1406 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1407 info task N
1408 Print detailed information about task number N.
1409 task
1410 Print the task number of the current task.
1411 task N
1412 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1413
adb483fe
DJ
1414* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1415add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1416
2277426b
PA
1417* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1418
1419 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1420 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1421 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1422 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1423 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1424 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1425 below.
1426
08d16641
PA
1427* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1428"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1429information.
1430
e35359c5
UW
1431* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1432to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1433architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1434See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1435more information.
1436
85e747d2
UW
1437* Multi-architecture debugging.
1438
1439 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1440 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1441 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1442 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1443 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1444
1445* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1446use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1447Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1448powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1449--enable-targets configure option.
1450
11ade57a
PA
1451* Non-stop mode debugging.
1452
1453 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1454 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1455 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1456 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1457 section in the user manual for more information.
1458
1459 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1460 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1461 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1462 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1463 extensions on linux targets.
1464
d7713ae0 1465* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 1466
a96d9b2e
SDJ
1467catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1468 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1469 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1470 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1471 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1472 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1473 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1474 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1475 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1476
08388c79
DE
1477find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1478 val1 [, val2, ...]
1479 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1480
d57a3c85
TJB
1481maint set python print-stack
1482maint show python print-stack
1483 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1484
1485python [CODE]
1486 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1487
d7713ae0
EZ
1488macro define
1489macro list
1490macro undef
1491 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1492 interactively.
1493
1494info os processes
1495 Show operating system information about processes.
1496
2277426b
PA
1497info inferiors
1498 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1499
1500inferior NUM
1501 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1502
1503detach inferior NUM
1504 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1505
1506kill inferior NUM
1507 Kill inferior number NUM.
1508
d7713ae0
EZ
1509* New options
1510
3285f3fe
UW
1511set spu stop-on-load
1512show spu stop-on-load
1513 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1514
ff1a52c6
UW
1515set spu auto-flush-cache
1516show spu auto-flush-cache
1517 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1518 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1519
d7713ae0
EZ
1520set sh calling-convention
1521show sh calling-convention
1522 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1523
e0a3ce09 1524set debug timestamp
75feb17d 1525show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
1526 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1527
1528set disassemble-next-line
1529show disassemble-next-line
1530 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1531 the debuggee stops.
1532
1533set remote noack-packet
1534show remote noack-packet
1535 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1536 under "New remote packets."
1537
1538set remote query-attached-packet
1539show remote query-attached-packet
1540 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1541
1542set remote read-siginfo-object
1543show remote read-siginfo-object
1544 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1545 packet.
1546
1547set remote write-siginfo-object
1548show remote write-siginfo-object
1549 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1550 packet.
1551
40ab02ce
MS
1552set remote reverse-continue
1553show remote reverse-continue
1554 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1555
1556set remote reverse-step
1557show remote reverse-step
1558 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1559
d7713ae0
EZ
1560set displaced-stepping
1561show displaced-stepping
1562 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1563 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1564 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1565
1566set debug displaced
1567show debug displaced
1568 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1569
1570maint set internal-error
1571maint show internal-error
1572 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1573
1574maint set internal-warning
1575maint show internal-warning
1576 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 1577
ccd213ac
DJ
1578set exec-wrapper
1579show exec-wrapper
1580unset exec-wrapper
1581 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 1582
aad4b048
JB
1583set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1584show multiple-symbols
1585 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1586 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1587 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1588
74960c60
VP
1589set breakpoint always-inserted
1590show breakpoint always-inserted
1591 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1592 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1593 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1594
0428b8f5
DJ
1595set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1596show arm fallback-mode
1597set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1598show arm force-mode
1599 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1600 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1601 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1602 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1603
10568435
JK
1604set disable-randomization
1605show disable-randomization
1606 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1607 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1608 multiple debugging sessions.
1609
d7713ae0
EZ
1610set non-stop
1611show non-stop
1612 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1613 a breakpoint.
1614
b3eb342c 1615set target-async
d7713ae0 1616show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
1617 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1618 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1619 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1620 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1621
6c7a06a3
TT
1622set target-wide-charset
1623show target-wide-charset
1624 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1625 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1626
84603566
SL
1627set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1628show tcp auto-retry
1629set tcp connect-timeout
1630show tcp connect-timeout
1631 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1632 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1633 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1634
17a37d48
PP
1635set libthread-db-search-path
1636show libthread-db-search-path
1637 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1638 libthread_db.
1639
d4db2f36
PA
1640set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1641show schedule-multiple
1642 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1643 the current process.
1644
4e5d721f
DE
1645set stack-cache
1646show stack-cache
1647 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1648 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1649 affecting correctness.
1650
910c5da8
JB
1651set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1652show interactive-mode
1653 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1654 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1655 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1656 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1657 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1658
2277426b
PA
1659* Removed commands
1660
1661info forks
1662 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1663 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1664 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1665 command.
1666
1667fork NUM
1668 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1669 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1670 alias for the `fork' command.
1671
1672process PID
1673 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1674 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1675 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1676
1677delete fork NUM
1678 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1679 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1680 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1681 fork' command.
1682
1683detach fork NUM
1684 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1685 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1686 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1687 fork' command.
1688
a80b95ba
TG
1689* New native configurations
1690
1691x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1692
b8bfd3ed
JB
1693x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1694
75a2d5e7
TT
1695* New targets
1696
c28c63d8 1697Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 1698x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 1699x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 1700S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 1701
6de3146c
PA
1702* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1703 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1704
d5cbbe6e
JB
1705* Removed commands
1706
1707catch load
1708catch unload
1709 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1710
75feb17d 1711*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 1712
af5ca30d
NH
1713* New native configurations
1714
1715NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 1716Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
1717
1718* New targets
1719
1720NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 1721Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 1722
7a404eba
PA
1723* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1724
1725 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1726 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1727 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1728 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1729
430ebac9
PA
1730* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1731(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1732
fe6fbf8b 1733* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 1734is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
1735
1736* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
1737including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1738and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 1739
10665d76
JB
1740* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1741accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1742more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1743
7cc46491
DJ
1744* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1745
d71340b8
DJ
1746* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1747registers on PowerPC targets.
1748
523c4513
DJ
1749* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1750targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1751
a6b151f1
DJ
1752* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1753commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1754
2d717e4f
DJ
1755* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1756extended-remote mode.
1757
24a836bd 1758* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
1759The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1760error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1761The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 1762
d0c678e6
UW
1763* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1764building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1765target architectures.
1766
d64a946d
TJB
1767* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1768Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1769now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1770stored in two consecutive float registers.
1771
ee163bf5
VP
1772* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1773breakpoints now.
1774
b93b6ca7 1775* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
1776Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1777include:
b93b6ca7
JB
1778 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1779 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1780 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1781 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1782 of an assignment
1783 - Improved command completion in Ada
1784 - Several bug fixes
1785
d001be7a
DJ
1786* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1787process.
1788
a6b151f1
DJ
1789* New commands
1790
6d53d0af
JB
1791set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1792show print frame-arguments
1793 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1794 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1795
a6b151f1
DJ
1796remote put
1797remote get
1798remote delete
1799 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1800
1801* New MI commands
1802
1803-target-file-put
1804-target-file-get
1805-target-file-delete
1806 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1807
1808* New remote packets
1809
1810vFile:open:
1811vFile:close:
1812vFile:pread:
1813vFile:pwrite:
1814vFile:unlink:
1815 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 1816
2d717e4f
DJ
1817vAttach
1818 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1819 mode.
1820
1821vRun
1822 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1823
8d5f9c6f 1824*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 1825
19d378fc
MS
1826* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1827bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1828Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1829
3a40aaa0
UW
1830* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1831symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1832-Bsymbolic linker option.
1833
a6ec25f2
BW
1834* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1835recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1836is not supported.
1837
6dd09645
JB
1838* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1839frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1840
c9bb8148
DJ
1841* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
184232-bit or 64-bit register values.
1843
0d5de010
DJ
1844* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1845
23181151
DJ
1846* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1847target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1848a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1849
ea37ba09
DJ
1850* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1851automatically displayed as character or string data.
1852
1853* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1854arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1855as strings.
e1f48ead 1856
123dc839
DJ
1857* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1858for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1859only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1860
05a4558a
DJ
1861* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1862iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1863
7c963485
PA
1864* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1865ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1866has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1867
b18be20d
DJ
1868* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1869
0ca420ce
UW
1870* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1871
31d99776
DJ
1872* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1873layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1874segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1875
a4642986
MR
1876* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1877immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1878
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1879* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1880"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1881packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1882where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1883Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1884
1885* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1886(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1887
1888* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1889according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1890
c9bb8148
DJ
1891* New commands
1892
23776285
MR
1893set remoteflow
1894show remoteflow
1895 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1896 when debugging using remote targets.
1897
c9bb8148
DJ
1898set mem inaccessible-by-default
1899show mem inaccessible-by-default
1900 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1901 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1902 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1903 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1904 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1905
1906set breakpoint auto-hw
1907show breakpoint auto-hw
1908 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1909 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1910 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1911 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1912 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1913 including "next" and "finish".
1914
0e420bd8
JB
1915catch exception
1916catch exception unhandled
1917 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1918
1919catch assert
1920 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1921
f822c95b
DJ
1922set sysroot
1923show sysroot
1924 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1925 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1926 an alias to "set sysroot".
1927
83cc5c53
UW
1928info spu
1929 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1930 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1931 architecture.
1932
bd372731
MK
1933* New native configurations
1934
1935OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1936
23181151
DJ
1937set tdesc filename
1938unset tdesc filename
1939show tdesc filename
1940 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1941 not query the target for its built-in description.
1942
c9bb8148
DJ
1943* New targets
1944
54fe9172 1945OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1946MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1947Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1948
6dd09645
JB
1949* New remote packets
1950
1951QPassSignals:
1952 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1953 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1954
23181151
DJ
1955qXfer:features:read:
1956 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1957 features.
6dd09645 1958
83cc5c53
UW
1959qXfer:spu:read:
1960qXfer:spu:write:
1961 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1962 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1963
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1964qXfer:libraries:read:
1965 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1966 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1967 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1968 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1969
483367ee
DJ
1970* Removed targets
1971
1972Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1973
d08950c4
UW
1974alpha*-*-osf1*
1975alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1976d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1977hppa*-*-hiux*
1978i[34567]86-ncr-*
1979i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1980i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1981i[34567]86-*-netware*
1982i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1983i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1984i[34567]86-*-sco*
1985i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1986i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1987i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1988i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1989i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1990i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1991i[34567]86-*-isc*
1992m68*-cisco*-*
1993m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1994mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1995rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1996sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1997
7ce59000
DJ
1998* Other removed features
1999
2000target abug
2001target cpu32bug
2002target est
2003target rom68k
2004
2005 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2006
ea35711c
DJ
2007target hms
2008target e7000
2009target sh3
2010target sh3e
2011
2012 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2013 H8/300.
2014
2015target ocd
2016
2017 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2018 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2019 interfaces.
2020
7ce59000
DJ
2021DWARF 1 support
2022
2023 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2024 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2025
54d61198
DJ
2026Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2027
2028 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2029 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2030 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2031 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2032
ea35711c
DJ
2033MIPS ".pdr" sections
2034
2035 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2036 in debugging information.
2037
2038Scheme support
2039
2040 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2041 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2042
1a69e1e4
DJ
2043set mips stack-arg-size
2044set mips saved-gpreg-size
2045
2046 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2047
6dd09645 2048*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 2049
ca3bf3bd
DJ
2050* New targets
2051
2052Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 2053Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 2054
6aec2e11
DJ
2055* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2056(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2057running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2058
2059* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2060Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2061supported.
2062
17218d91
DJ
2063* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2064broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2065
9ebce043
DJ
2066* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2067stub provides the required support.
2068
7d3d3ece
DJ
2069* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2070longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2071
4f8253f3
JB
2072* New commands
2073
2074set substitute-path
2075unset substitute-path
2076show substitute-path
2077 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2078 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2079 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2080 between compilation and debugging.
2081
9fa66fd7
AS
2082set trace-commands
2083show trace-commands
2084 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2085 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2086 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2087
1f5befc1
DJ
2088* REMOVED features
2089
2090The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2091
2ec3381a
DJ
2092Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2093an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2094
3d00d119
DJ
2095The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2096
be2a5f71
DJ
2097* New remote packets
2098
2099qSupported:
2100 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2101 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2102 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2103 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2104 target.
2105
0876f84a
DJ
2106qXfer:auxv:read:
2107 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2108 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2109
9ebce043
DJ
2110qXfer:memory-map:read:
2111 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2112 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2113
2114vFlashErase:
2115vFlashWrite:
2116vFlashDone:
2117 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2118
0876f84a
DJ
2119* Removed remote packets
2120
2121qPart:auxv:read:
2122 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2123 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2124
e374b601 2125*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 2126
96309189
MS
2127* New targets
2128
2129Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2130
2131Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2132
53e5f3cf
AS
2133* New commands
2134
2135init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2136 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2137
ac264b3b
MS
2138The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2139
2140checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2141
2142restart <n> Return the program state to a
2143 previously saved state.
2144
2145info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2146
2147delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2148
2149set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2150 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2151
2152info forks List forks of the user program that
2153 are available to be debugged.
2154
2155fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2156 forks of the user program that are
2157 available to be debugged.
2158
2159delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2160 that are available to be debugged (and
2161 kill the forked process).
2162
2163detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2164 that are available to be debugged (and
2165 allow the process to continue).
2166
3950dc3f
NS
2167* New architecture
2168
2169Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2170
0ea3f30e
DJ
2171* Improved Windows host support
2172
2173GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2174native console support, and remote communications using either
2175network sockets or serial ports.
2176
f79daebb
GM
2177* Improved Modula-2 language support
2178
2179GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2180basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2181pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2182printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2183written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2184GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2185
acab6ab2
MM
2186* REMOVED features
2187
2188The ARM rdi-share module.
2189
f4267320
DJ
2190The Netware NLM debug server.
2191
53e5f3cf 2192*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 2193
e0ecbda1
MK
2194* New native configurations
2195
02a677ac 2196OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
2197OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2198
d64a6579
KB
2199* New targets
2200
2201Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2202
b33a6190
AS
2203* New command line options
2204
2205--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2206--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2207 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2208--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2209 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2210 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2211 with the --command (-x) option.
2212
11dced61
AC
2213* Deprecated commands removed
2214
2215The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2216removed:
2217
2218 Command Replacement
2219 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2220 othernames set arm disassembler
2221 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2222 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2223 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2224 regs info registers
2225
6fe85783
MK
2226* New BSD user-level threads support
2227
2228It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2229library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2230configurations are:
2231
2232FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2233FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2234OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2235
2236Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2237are not yet supported.
2238
5260ca71
MS
2239* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2240(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2241
e84ecc99
AC
2242* REMOVED configurations and files
2243
2244VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 2245Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 2246National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 2247
31e35378
JB
2248* New "set print array-indexes" command
2249
2250After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2251when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2252behavior.
2253
e85e5c83
MK
2254* VAX floating point support
2255
2256GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2257
d91e9901
AS
2258* User-defined command support
2259
2260In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2261to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2262section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2263
f2cb65ca
MC
2264*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2265
f47b1503
AS
2266* New command line option
2267
2268GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2269debugging.
2270
f2cb65ca
MC
2271* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2272
2273GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2274information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2275by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2276proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2277to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 2278
d08c0230
AC
2279* Internationalization
2280
2281When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2282internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2283continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2284
117ea3cf
PH
2285* Ada
2286
2287Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2288implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2289into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2290
d08c0230
AC
2291* New native configurations
2292
2293GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2294
2295* Remote 'p' packet
2296
2297GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2298packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2299
2300* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2301
2302GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2303The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2304features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2305i386 application).
2306
2307GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2308compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2309continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2310configurations:
2311
2312hppa-*-hpux
2313ia64-*-aix
2314mips-*-irix*
2315*-*-lynx
2316mips-*-linux-gnu
2317sds protocol
2318xdr protocol
2319powerpc bdm protocol
2320
2321Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2322made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2323
2324* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2325
2326Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2327been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2328configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2329permanently REMOVED.
2330
2331h8300-*-*
2332mcore-*-*
2333mn10300-*-*
2334ns32k-*-*
2335sh64-*-*
2336v850-*-*
2337
ebb7c577
AC
2338*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2339
2340* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2341
2342When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2343heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2344been fixed.
2345
2346* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2347
2348When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2349fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2350IRIX long double values).
2351
2352* VAX and "next"
2353
2354A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2355command. This problem has been fixed.
2356
860660cb 2357*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 2358
0dea2468
AC
2359* Fix for ``many threads''
2360
2361On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2362rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2363error message:
2364
2365 ptrace: No such process.
2366 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2367
2368This problem has been fixed.
2369
2c07db7a
AC
2370* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2371
2372Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2373GDB to dump core).
2374
c23968a2
JB
2375* New ``start'' command.
2376
2377This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2378
71009278
MK
2379* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2380
2381Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2382live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2383platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2384
2385FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2386FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2387NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2388NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2389NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2390OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2391OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2392OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2393OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2394
3c0b7db2
AC
2395* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2396
2397Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2398These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2399of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2400call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2401signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2402
73cc75f3
AC
2403Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2404features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2405include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 2406
7243600a
BF
2407* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2408
6f606e1c
MK
2409* New native configurations
2410
97dc871c 2411GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 2412OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
2413OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2414OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 2415OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2416NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 2417OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2418
a1b461bf
AC
2419* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2420
2421GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2422The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2423including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2424migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2425compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2426work, was also included.
2427
2428GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2429module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2430
2431h8300-*-*
2432mcore-*-*
2433mn10300-*-*
2434ns32k-*-*
2435sh64-*-*
2436v850-*-*
2437xstormy16-*-*
2438
2439Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2440made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2441
3c7012f5
AC
2442* REMOVED configurations and files
2443
2444Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2445Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2446Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2447Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2448Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2449AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2450Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2451decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2452riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2453sonymips mips-sony-*
2454sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2455
e5fe55f7
AC
2456*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2457
2458* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2459
2460The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2461GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2462command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2463program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2464with GDB".
2465
2466* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2467
2468Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2469libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2470cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2471GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2472shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2473the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2474are created.
2475
2476Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2477
2478* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2479
2480The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2481non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2482compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2483
2484* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2485
2486Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2487wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2488
2489* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2490
2491The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2492permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2493systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2494
2495* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2496
2497Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2498has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2499
2500* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2501
2502GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2503its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2504panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2505
2506* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2507
2508When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2509by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2510not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2511
faae5abe 2512*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 2513
9175c9a3
MC
2514* Removed --with-mmalloc
2515
2516Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2517conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2518
3cc87ec0
MK
2519* Changes in AMD64 configurations
2520
2521The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2522the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2523and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2524you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2525
f0424ef6
MK
2526* Revised SPARC target
2527
2528The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2529FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
2530support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2531from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2532(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 2533
59659be2
ILT
2534* New C++ demangler
2535
2536GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2537names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2538with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2539programs.
2540
9e08b29b
DJ
2541* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2542
2543GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2544arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2545encountered these.
2546
8dfe8985
DC
2547* C++ nested types and namespaces
2548
2549GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2550improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2551is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2552Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2553namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2554"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2555frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2556if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2557GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2558
cced5e27
MK
2559* New native configurations
2560
2561NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 2562OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 2563OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
2564OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2565OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 2566
b4b4b794
KI
2567* New debugging protocols
2568
2569M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2570
7989c619
AC
2571* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2572
2573The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2574and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2575tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2576
5994185b
AC
2577* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2578
2579Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2580been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2581configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2582permanently REMOVED.
2583
2584Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2585Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2586Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2587Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2588Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2589AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2590Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
2591decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2592riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2593sonymips mips-sony-*
2594sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 2595
0ddabb4c
AC
2596* REMOVED configurations and files
2597
2598SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2599SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
2600Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2601Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2602H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2603HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2604HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2605HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2606PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 2607386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
2608Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2609 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2610 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
2611SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2612SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
2613Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2614Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 2615
c7f1390e
DJ
2616*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2617
1fe43d45
AC
2618* Objective-C
2619
2620Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2621integrated into GDB.
2622
e6beb428
AC
2623* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2624
2625DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2626information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2627By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2628backtraces.
2629
2630The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2631have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2632DWARF 2 CFI support.
2633
2634* Hosted file I/O.
2635
2636GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2637file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2638remote protocol documentation for details.
2639
2640* All targets using the new architecture framework.
2641
2642All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2643architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2644to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2645ppc32 on ppc64).
2646
2647* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2648
2649GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2650per-thread variables.
2651
2652* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2653
2654GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2655GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2656
2657* Separate debug info.
2658
2659GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2660automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2661of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2662system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2663and optional debug files.
2664
2665* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2666
2667DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2668describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2669debugger.
2670
2671GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2672for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2673
2674* Java
2675
2676A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2677Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2678considered "useable".
2679
85f8f974
DJ
2680* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2681
2682The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2683commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2684kernel.
2685
0fac0b41
DJ
2686* GDB supports logging output to a file
2687
2688There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2689used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 2690
6ad8ae5c
DJ
2691* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2692
2693The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2694disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2695command.
2696
e286caf2 2697* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
2698
2699The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2700registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2701
d28f9cdf
DJ
2702* Profiling support
2703
2704A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2705be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2706session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2707"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2708data, for more informative profiling results.
2709
da0f9dcd
AC
2710* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2711
2712The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2713option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 2714"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
2715
2716Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2717removed.
2718
fb9b6b35
JJ
2719Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2720Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2721Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2722 in a subsequent -var-update.
2723
954a4db8
MK
2724* New native configurations.
2725
2726FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2727
6760f9e6
JB
2728* Multi-arched targets.
2729
b4263afa 2730HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 2731Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 2732
1b831c93
AC
2733* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2734
2735Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2736been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2737configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2738permanently REMOVED.
2739
8b0e5691 2740Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 2741Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 2742H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
2743HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2744HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2745HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 2746PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
2747Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2748 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2749 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
2750Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2751Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 2752
5835abe7
NC
2753* REMOVED configurations and files
2754
2755V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
2756Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2757IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2758i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2759i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2760i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2761HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2762 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2763 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2764Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2765Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2766Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2767OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2768I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 2769
a094c6fb
AC
2770* MIPS $fp behavior changed
2771
2772The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2773the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2774context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2775address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2776The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2777
299ffc64 2778*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 2779
46248966
AC
2780* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2781
2782When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2783`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2784in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2785library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2786shared libs like mad''.
2787
b9d14705 2788* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 2789
b9d14705
DJ
2790Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2791the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2792arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2793powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 2794
e0e9281e
JB
2795* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2796
2797GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2798and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2799they expand.
2800
dd73b9bb
AC
2801The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2802invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2803
2804The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2805macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2806
e0e9281e
JB
2807Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2808information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2809your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2810information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2811
2250ee0c
CV
2812* Multi-arched targets.
2813
6e3ba3b8
JT
2814DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2815DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 2816NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 2817National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
2818Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2819Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 2820
cd9bfe15 2821* New targets.
e33ce519 2822
456f8b9d
DB
2823Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2824
e33ce519 2825
da8ca43d
JT
2826* New native configurations
2827
2828Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 2829SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 2830MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 2831UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 2832
cd9bfe15
AC
2833* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2834
2835Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2836been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2837configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2838permanently REMOVED.
2839
92eb23c5 2840Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 2841OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 2842IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 2843Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 2844Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 2845Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
2846i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2847i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2848i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
2849HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2850 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2851 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2852I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2853
db034ac5
AC
2854* OBSOLETE languages
2855
2856CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2857
cd9bfe15
AC
2858* REMOVED configurations and files
2859
2860AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2861A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2862AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2863AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2864AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2865
2866testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2867
20f01a46
DH
2868* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2869
2870This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2871commands. The default is 1024.
2872
a5941fbf
MK
2873* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2874
2875Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2876
89743e04
MS
2877* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2878
2879These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2880to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2881from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2882
9fb14e79
JB
2883* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2884
2885The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2886including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2887of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2888
2037aebb
AC
2889*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2890
2891* New targets.
2892
2893Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2894
2895* Bug fixes
2896
2897gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2898mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2899Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2900
2901gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2902dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2903Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2904
2905Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2906Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2907By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2908
2909i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2910avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2911By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2912
37057839 2913*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2914
1a703748
MS
2915* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2916
2917This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2918really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2919In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2920target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2921This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2922(notably embedded) targets.
2923
cefd4ef5
MS
2924* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2925
55241689
AC
2926This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2927process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2928GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2929hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2930
352ed7b4
MS
2931* New command line option
2932
2933GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2934
2935* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2936
2937There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2938command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2939a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2940be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2941open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2942issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2943a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2944it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2945GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2946is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2947
fe419ffc
RE
2948* Changes in ARM configurations.
2949
2950Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2951configuration is fully multi-arch.
2952
eb7cedd9
MK
2953* New native configurations
2954
fe419ffc 2955ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2956x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2957AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2958Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2959
c9f63e6b
CV
2960* New targets
2961
2962Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2963
9b4ff276
AC
2964* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2965
2966Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2967been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2968configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2969permanently REMOVED.
2970
2971AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2972A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2973AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2974AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2975AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2976
b4ceaee6 2977testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2978
e2caac18
AC
2979* REMOVED configurations and files
2980
2981TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2982WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2983PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2984PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2985PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2986Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2987Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2988 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2989SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2990Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2991Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2992ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2993Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2994
c2a727fa
TT
2995* Changes to command line processing
2996
2997The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2998for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2999
467d8519
TT
3000* Changes to key bindings
3001
3002There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3003
7072a954
AC
3004*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3005
3006Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3007
3008Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3009corrupted.
3010
3011Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3012
3013Numerous documentation fixes.
3014
3015Numerous testsuite fixes.
3016
34f47bc4 3017*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
3018
3019* New native configurations
3020
3021Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3022x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 3023MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
3024MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3025ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 3026s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 3027
bf64bfd6
AC
3028* New targets
3029
def90278 3030Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 3031CRIS cris-axis
55241689 3032UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 3033
17e78a56 3034* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
3035
3036x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 3037Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
3038Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3039 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
3040TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3041WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 3042Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
3043PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3044PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3045PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 3046SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
3047Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3048ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 3049Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 3050
17e78a56
AC
3051stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3052kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3053
7fcca85b
AC
3054Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3055been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3056configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3057permanently REMOVED.
3058
a196c81c 3059* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
3060
3061Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3062Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3063Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3064ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3065Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 3066ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 3067
6d6b80e5 3068* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 3069
6d6b80e5 3070GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
3071sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3072present.
3073
bf64bfd6
AC
3074* Other news:
3075
e23194cb
EZ
3076* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3077
3078* The MI enabled by default.
3079
3080The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3081revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3082engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3083using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3084which is now deprecated.
3085
3086* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3087
3088GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3089main features are supported:
3090
3091 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3092
3093 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3094 extension;
3095
3096 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3097
3098 - a Pascal expression parser.
3099
3100However, some important features are not yet supported.
3101
3102 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3103
3104 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3105
3106 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3107 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3108
3109 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3110
3111 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3112
3113* Changes in completion.
3114
3115Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3116to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3117users expect at the shell prompt.
3118
3119Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3120`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3121program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3122files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3123be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3124considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3125name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3126
3127`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3128
3129* New platform-independent commands:
3130
3131It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3132hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3133documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3134
3135* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3136
d7275149
MK
3137Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3138revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3139many threads as your system allows you to have.
3140
e23194cb
EZ
3141Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3142
d7275149
MK
3143Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3144multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
3145
3146* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
3147
3148Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3149
e23194cb
EZ
3150GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3151debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3152supported.)
3153
3154* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3155
3156Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3157breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3158implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3159put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3160and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3161registers.
3162
3163The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3164debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3165watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3166
3167* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3168
3169New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3170the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3171
3172New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3173display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3174IDT.
3175
3176New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3177from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3178New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3179a given linear address.
3180
3181GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3182program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3183which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3184
3185DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3186
6c56c069
EZ
3187It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3188
e23194cb
EZ
3189* Changes in documentation.
3190
3191All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3192Documentation License.
3193
3194Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3195manual.
3196
3197TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3198
3199Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3200manual.
3201
3202The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3203documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3204hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3205
5d6640b1
AC
3206* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3207
3208The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3209``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3210contents of this file.
3211
1a1d8446
AC
3212* gdba.el deleted
3213
3214GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 3215
9debab2f 3216*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 3217
c63ce875
EZ
3218* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3219
3220Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3221programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3222displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3223greater level of detail.
3224
3225* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3226
3227It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3228bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3229on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3230written.
3231
3232* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3233
3234The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3235necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3236machines ``out of the box''.
3237
3238The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3239possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3240signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3241would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3242interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3243
3244It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3245standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3246even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3247and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3248terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3249
3250The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3251enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3252also works.
3253
3254DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3255GDB.
3256
3257It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3258directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3259times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3260breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3261
ed9a39eb
JM
3262* New native configurations
3263
3264ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 3265PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 3266
7a292a7a
SS
3267* New targets
3268
96baa820 3269Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
3270x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3271PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
3272TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3273
085dd6e6
JM
3274* OBSOLETE configurations
3275
3276Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3277Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 3278Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 3279ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 3280Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 3281
9debab2f
AC
3282Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3283but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3284these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3285be permanently REMOVED.
3286
5330533d
SS
3287* Gould support removed
3288
3289Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3290
bc9e5bbf
AC
3291* New features for SVR4
3292
3293On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3294without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3295load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3296
3297* Many C++ enhancements
3298
3299C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3300in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3301
adf40b2e
JM
3302* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3303
3304A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3305sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3306with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3307``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3308
3309 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3310 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3311
43e526b9
JM
3312* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3313
3314A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3315expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3316instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3317
3318The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3319added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3320
96baa820
JM
3321* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3322
3323The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3324``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3325include ``set remote P-packet''.
3326
11cf8741
JM
3327* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3328
3329The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3330accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3331``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3332
7876dd43
DB
3333* ``apropos'' command added.
3334
3335The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3336documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3337try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3338
bc9e5bbf
AC
3339* New MI interface
3340
3341A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3342interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
3343process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3344"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3345enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
3346
3347 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3348
c906108c
SS
3349*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3350
3351* New native configurations
3352
3353HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3354HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 3355M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
3356
3357* New targets
3358
3359Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3360Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3361Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3362
3363* OBSOLETE configurations
3364
3365Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3366
3367Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3368but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3369these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3370be permanently REMOVED.
3371
3372* ANSI/ISO C
3373
3374As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3375buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3376containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3377use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3378available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3379configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3380information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3381already.
3382
3383* Readline 2.2
3384
3385GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3386
3387* set extension-language
3388
3389You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3390languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3391you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3392 set extension-language .c c++
3393The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3394and their associated languages.
3395
3396* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3397
3398When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3399you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3400PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3401
3402 set processor NAME
3403
3404sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3405following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3406
3407 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3408 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3409 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3410 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3411 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3412 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3413 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3414 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3415 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3416 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3417 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3418
3419At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3420special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3421registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3422only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3423
3424* HP-UX support
3425
3426Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3427more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3428library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3429support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3430for xdb and dbx commands.
3431
3432* Catchpoints
3433
3434HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3435generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3436to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3437
3438This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3439argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3440output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3441
3442* Debugging across forks
3443
3444On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3445in the inferior.
3446
3447* TUI
3448
3449HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3450it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3451configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3452
3453* GDB remote protocol additions
3454
3455A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3456Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3457fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3458allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3459
3460For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3461full 64-bit address. The command
3462
3463 set remoteaddresssize 32
3464
3465can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3466the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3467will be discarded.
3468
3469In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3470command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3471
3472 maint packet heythere
3473
3474sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3475disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3476time.
3477
3478The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3479target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3480downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3481
3482* Tracing can collect general expressions
3483
3484You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3485further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3486doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3487
3488* mask-address variable for Mips
3489
3490For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3491a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3492of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3493
3494* Higher serial baud rates
3495
3496GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3497230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3498to achieve all of these rates.)
3499
3500* i960 simulator
3501
3502The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3503builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3504
3505
3506*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3507
3508* New native configurations
3509
3510Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3511Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3512Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3513PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3514PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3515Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3516Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3517
3518* New targets
3519
3520Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3521Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3522Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3523Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3524MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3525MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3526MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3527Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3528Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3529Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3530NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3531
3532* New debugging protocols
3533
3534ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3535M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3536DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3537PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3538PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3539Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3540
3541* DWARF 2
3542
3543All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3544format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3545information.
3546
3547* Java frontend
3548
3549GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3550only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3551
3552* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3553
3554For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3555loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3556locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3557
3558* Live range splitting
3559
3560GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3561range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3562more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3563
3564* Hurd support
3565
3566GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3567updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3568
3569* ARM Thumb support
3570
3571GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3572instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3573instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3574accordingly.
3575
3576* MIPS16 support
3577
3578GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3579instruction set.
3580
3581* Overlay support
3582
3583GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3584linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3585will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3586control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3587additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3588in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3589
3590* info symbol
3591
3592The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3593the symbol at the specified address.
3594
3595* Trace support
3596
3597The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3598asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3599extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3600includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3601file tracepoint.c for more details.
3602
3603* MIPS simulator
3604
3605Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3606by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3607of most MIPS variants.
3608
3609* Sparc simulator
3610
3611Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3612by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3613Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3614
3615* set architecture
3616
3617For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3618basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3619architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3620the possible architectures.
3621
3622*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3623
3624* New native configurations
3625
3626Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3627M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3628PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3629PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3630PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3631RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3632
3633* New targets
3634
3635ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3636I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3637MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3638MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3639PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3640Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3641Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3642
3643* PowerPC simulator
3644
3645The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3646contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3647PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3648basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3649performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3650
3651* Solaris 2.5
3652
3653GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3654
3655* Windows 95/NT native
3656
3657GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3658To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3659which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3660Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3661ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3662
3663* dont-repeat command
3664
3665If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3666command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3667useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3668extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3669
3670* Send break instead of ^C
3671
3672The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3673rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3674GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3675
3676* Remote protocol timeout
3677
3678The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3679that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3680to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3681
3682* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3683
3684By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3685loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3686stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3687when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3688in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3689
3690Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3691/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3692automatically on hpux10.
3693
3694* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3695
3696Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3697
3698* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3699
3700When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3701may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3702the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3703every character. The default value is 1050.
3704
3705* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3706
3707If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3708a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3709replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3710details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3711remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3712to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3713
3714* Speedups for remote debugging
3715
3716GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3717the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3718and more efficient S-record downloading.
3719
3720* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3721
3722GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3723Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3724
3725*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3726
3727* Psymtabs for XCOFF
3728
3729The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3730can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3731
3732* Remote targets use caching
3733
3734Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3735remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3736it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3737debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3738off' turns the the data cache off.
3739
3740* Remote targets may have threads
3741
3742The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3743in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3744gdb/remote.c for details.
3745
3746* NetROM support
3747
3748If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3749support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3750acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3751write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3752support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3753another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3754sequence is something like
3755
3756 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3757 load <prog>
3758 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3759
3760* Macintosh host
3761
3762GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3763may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3764it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3765available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3766device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3767directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3768scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3769mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3770
3771* Autoconf
3772
3773GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3774but does simplify configuration and building.
3775
3776* hpux10
3777
3778GDB now supports hpux10.
3779
3780*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3781
3782* New native configurations
3783
3784x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3785x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3786NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3787Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3788
3789* New targets
3790
3791A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3792HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3793CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3794PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3795WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3796
3797* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3798
3799GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3800possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3801filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3802the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3803if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3804
3805* Arguments to user-defined commands
3806
3807User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3808Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3809trivial example:
3810define adder
3811 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3812
3813To execute the command use:
3814adder 1 2 3
3815
3816Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3817Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3818use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3819
3820* New `if' and `while' commands
3821
3822This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3823commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3824expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3825execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3826terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3827`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3828if the expression is zero.
3829
3830* Fortran source language mode
3831
3832GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3833Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3834variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3835with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3836Fortran compilers.
3837
3838* Better HPUX support
3839
3840Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3841running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3842processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3843for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3844that behavior do the following before running the program:
3845
3846 adb -w a.out
3847 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3848 control-d
3849
3850This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3851To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3852
3853 adb -w a.out
3854 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3855 control-d
3856
3857You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3858the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3859external linkage.
3860
3861GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3862HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3863
3864* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3865
3866You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3867commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3868current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3869"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3870associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3871configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3872
3873* New DOS host serial code
3874
3875This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3876no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3877a PC's serial port.
3878
3879*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3880
3881* New "complete" command
3882
3883This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3884were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3885
3886* Trailing space optional in prompt
3887
3888"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3889allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3890
3891* Breakpoint hit counts
3892
3893"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3894has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3895can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3896to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3897less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3898that breakpoint.
3899
3900* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3901
3902"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3903an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3904arrays actually contain only short strings.
3905
3906* Shared library breakpoints
3907
3908In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3909breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3910
3911* Hardware watchpoints
3912
3913There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3914targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3915
55241689 3916Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3917
3918* Annotations
3919
3920Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3921and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3922
3923* Improved Irix 5 support
3924
3925GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3926
3927* Improved HPPA support
3928
3929GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3930
3931* New native configurations
3932
3933Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3934HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3935Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3936RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3937
3938* New targets
3939
3940OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3941MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3942Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3943
3944* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3945
3946There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3947This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3948
3949* Fixes
3950
3951As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3952and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3953
3954*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3955
3956* Irix 5 is now supported
3957
3958* HPPA support
3959
3960GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3961to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3962GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3963of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3964can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3965
3966
3967*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3968
3969* User visible changes:
3970
3971* Remote Debugging
3972
3973The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3974target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3975debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3976integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3977debugging info for the mips target).
3978
3979* DEC Alpha native support
3980
3981GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3982debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3983work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3984Alpha-specific notes.
3985
3986* Preliminary thread implementation
3987
3988GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3989
3990* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3991
3992This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3993to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3994for details).
3995
3996* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3997
3998This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3999mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4000call methods, ...etc.
4001
4002*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4003
4004 * User visible changes:
4005
4006Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4007supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4008other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4009somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4010
4011Filename completion now works.
4012
4013When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4014arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4015addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4016
4017All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4018vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4019should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4020your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4021to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4022
4023 * DEC alpha support
4024
4025This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4026cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4027
4028
4029*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4030
4031 * Testsuite
4032
4033This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4034The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4035via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4036
4037 * C++ demangling
4038
4039'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4040emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4041Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4042disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4043use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4044
4045 * Simulators
4046
4047GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4048So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4049Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4050
4051 * New targets supported
4052
4053H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4054H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4055SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4056Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4057IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4058
4059Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4060version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4061GO32 memory extender.
4062
4063 * New remote protocols
4064
4065MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4066
4067 * New source languages supported
4068
4069This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4070used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4071into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4072
4073
4074*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4075
4076 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4077
4078GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4079version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4080University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4081compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4082format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4083(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4084
4085Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4086
4087 * Faster and better demangling
4088
4089We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4090demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4091character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4092only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4093This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4094increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4095symbol lookups.
4096
4097`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4098from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4099compiler does not actually implement.
4100
4101 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4102
4103In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4104inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4105recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4106very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4107The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4108circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4109fix.
4110
4111The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4112release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4113
4114 * Improved configure script
4115
4116The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4117you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4118host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4119done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4120
4121We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4122version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4123`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4124The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4125only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4126We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4127
4128 * Documentation improvements
4129
4130There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4131produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4132before submitting changes.
4133
4134The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4135M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4136`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4137you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4138a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4139
4140*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4141We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4142been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4143or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4144`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4145around this problem.
4146
4147 * New features
4148
4149GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4150the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4151`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4152the target program.
4153
4154The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4155how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4156
4157 * New native hosts supported
4158
4159HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4160386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4161
4162 * New targets supported
4163
4164AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4165
4166 * New file formats supported
4167
4168BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4169HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4170
4171 * Major bug fixes
4172
4173Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4174
4175We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4176printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4177
4178We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4179for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4180release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4181
4182You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4183will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4184
4185We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4186for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4187especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4188libraries.
4189
4190The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4191information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4192command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4193any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4194when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4195
4196 * Internal improvements
4197
4198GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4199debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4200
4201GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4202Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4203symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4204contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4205shared code that handles any of them.
4206
4207 * New command line options
4208
4209We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4210
4211 * Mmalloc licensing
4212
4213The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4214General Public License.
4215
4216*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4217
4218 * Host/native/target split
4219
4220GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4221hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4222target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4223local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4224ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4225
4226The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4227GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4228is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4229code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4230any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4231built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4232handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4233
4234GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4235It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4236plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4237
4238 * New hosts supported
4239
4240HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4241386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4242386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4243
4244 * New targets supported
4245
4246Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
424768030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4248
4249 * New native hosts supported
4250
4251386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4252 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4253386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4254
4255 * New file formats supported
4256
4257BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4258supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4259format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4260
4261 * New commands
4262
4263`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4264`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4265These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4266
4267`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4268
4269You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4270scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4271prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4272executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4273
4274 * C++ improvements
4275
4276We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4277info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4278symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4279
4280Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4281
4282 * Major bug fixes
4283
4284The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4285fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4286by the compiler.
4287
4288We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4289support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4290
4291John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4292slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4293that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4294purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4295the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4296mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4297
4298Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4299about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4300completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4301we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4302
4303 * AMD 29k support
4304
4305A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4306specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4307calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4308usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4309in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4310
4311We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4312Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4313of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4314resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4315
4316 * Remote interfaces
4317
4318We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4319with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4320message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4321This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4322needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4323breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4324each instruction being stepped through.
4325
4326The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4327registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4328
4329There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4330find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4331Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4332processor with a serial port.
4333
4334 * Configuration
4335
4336Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4337`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4338supported, and what files each one uses.
4339
4340 * Library changes
4341
4342There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4343disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4344Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4345disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4346
4347The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4348Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4349can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4350grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4351
4352 * Documentation
4353
4354The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4355reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4356as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4357encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4358system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4359bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4360
4361And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4362
4363
4364*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4365
4366 * Better support for C++ function names
4367
4368GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4369names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4370(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4371single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4372Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4373
4374GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4375the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4376You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4377lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4378for the list of formats.
4379
4380 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4381
4382Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4383C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4384directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4385can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4386usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4387about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4388this problem.)
4389
4390 * New 'maintenance' command
4391
4392All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4393the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4394can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4395
4396 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4397 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4398 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4399 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4400 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4401 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4402
4403The following commands are new:
4404
4405 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4406 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4407 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4408
4409 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4410
4411We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4412(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4413be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4414read after argv processing.
4415
4416 * New hosts supported
4417
4418Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4419
55241689 4420GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
4421
4422We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4423is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4424for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4425masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4426fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4427It costs extra.
4428
4429 * New targets supported
4430
4431Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4432
4433 * More smarts about finding #include files
4434
4435GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4436all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4437greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4438especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4439the one that contains your sources.
4440
4441We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4442breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4443try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4444
4445 * Interesting infernals change
4446
4447GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4448section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4449target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4450stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4451
4452 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4453
4454There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4455 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4456 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4457
4458See the ChangeLog for details.
4459
4460*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4461
4462 * New machines supported (host and target)
4463
4464IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4465
4466SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4467
4468 * New malloc package
4469
4470GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4471Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4472capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4473This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4474pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4475more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4476
4477 * info proc
4478
4479The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4480'help info proc' for details.
4481
4482 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4483
4484The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4485Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4486possible.
4487
4488 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4489
4490Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4491support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4492conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4493environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4494that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4495in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4496
4497 * Cross byte order fixes
4498
4499Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4500targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4501
4502 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4503
4504If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4505system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4506`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4507program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4508called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4509Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4510and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4511the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4512option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4513starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4514
4515You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4516the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4517information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4518slower, but makes future operations faster.
4519
4520The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4521build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4522A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4523use is:
4524
4525 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4526
4527The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4528It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4529shared across multiple host platforms.
4530
4531 * longjmp() handling
4532
4533GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4534siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4535all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4536platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4537
4538 * Solaris 2.0
4539
4540Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4541this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4542reading symbols.
4543
4544 * Bug fixes
4545
4546As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4547People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4548crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4549
4550*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4551
4552 * New machines supported (host and target)
4553
4554SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4555 (except core files)
4556BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4557Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4558
4559 * New machines supported (target)
4560
4561AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4562
4563 * C++ support
4564
4565GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4566The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4567per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4568
4569GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4570`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4571extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4572good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4573will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4574released.
4575
4576 * New features for SVR4
4577
4578GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4579shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4580only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4581
4582The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4583on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4584it prints the address mappings of the process.
4585
4586If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4587bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4588
4589 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4590
4591Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4592now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4593skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4594make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4595same code linked statically.
4596
4597 * New Getopt
4598
4599GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4600version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4601continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4602Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4603added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4604future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4605
4606 * Bugs fixed
4607
4608The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4609Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4610See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4611
4612
4613*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4614
4615 * New machines supported (host and target)
4616
4617Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4618NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4619Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4620
4621 * Almost SCO Unix support
4622
4623We had hoped to support:
4624SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4625(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4626that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4627about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4628
4629 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4630
4631GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4632debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4633is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4634send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4635reqired (if any).
4636
4637 * New Readline
4638
4639GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4640is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4641required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4642
4643 * Bugs fixed
4644
4645The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4646Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4647See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4648
4649 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4650
4651GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4652supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4653symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4654
4655Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4656mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4657debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4658mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4659version 2.
4660
4661Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4662really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4663line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4664variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4665situation somewhat.
4666
4667When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4668However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4669methods.
4670
4671We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4672DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4673encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4674
4675
4676*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4677
4678 * Improved configuration
4679
4680Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4681Porting BFD is simpler.
4682
4683 * Stepping improved
4684
4685The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4686of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4687in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4688function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4689
4690 * Bug fixing
4691
4692Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4693
4694 * New host supported (not target)
4695
4696Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4697
4698
4699*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4700
4701 * Multiple source language support
4702
4703GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4704It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4705and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4706language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4707You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4708`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4709
4710 * GDB and Modula-2
4711
4712GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4713currently under development at the State University of New York at
4714Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4715continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4716
4717Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4718debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4719symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4720
4721There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4722in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4723
4724 * set write on/off
4725
4726GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4727a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4728the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4729by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4730effect immediately.
4731
4732 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4733
4734When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4735shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4736The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4737examining core files.
4738
4739 * set listsize
4740
4741You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4742The default is 10.
4743
4744 * New machines supported (host and target)
4745
4746SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4747Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4748Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4749
4750 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4751
4752IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4753
4754 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4755
4756AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4757AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4758Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4759
4760 * New remote interfaces
4761
4762AMD 29000 Adapt
4763AMD 29000 Minimon
4764
4765
4766*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4767
4768 * New Facilities
4769
4770Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4771
4772Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4773target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4774is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4775remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4776remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4777also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4778using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4779stub on the target system.
4780
4781New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4782
4783GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4784library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4785object file types such as a.out and coff.
4786
4787There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4788refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4789
4790
4791 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4792
4793All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4794by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4795
4796For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4797``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4798Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4799
4800What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4801print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4802will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4803all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4804
4805confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4806 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4807 it is already running. Default is ON.
4808
4809editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4810 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4811 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4812 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4813 Default is ON.
4814
4815history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4816 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4817 or the value of the environment variable
4818 GDBHISTFILE.
4819
4820history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4821 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4822 HISTSIZE.
4823
4824history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4825 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4826 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4827
4828history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4829 history expansion will be performed on
4830 command line input. The default is OFF.
4831
4832radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4833 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4834 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4835
4836height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4837 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4838 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4839 variable TERM.
4840
4841width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4842 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4843 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4844 variable TERM.
4845
4846Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4847``set width'' instead.
4848
4849print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4850 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4851 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4852 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4853
4854print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4855 is OFF.
4856
4857print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4858 "raw" form if off.
4859
4860print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4861 like instructions.
4862
4863print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4864
4865
4866 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4867
4868The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4869new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4870are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4871window.
4872
4873
4874 * Support for Shared Libraries
4875
4876GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4877Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4878before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4879happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4880At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4881from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4882shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4883It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4884
4885sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4886 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4887 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4888
4889info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4890
4891
4892 * Watchpoints
4893
4894A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4895expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4896tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4897quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4898problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4899more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4900
4901watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4902
4903info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4904
4905delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4906disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4907enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4908
4909
4910 * C++ multiple inheritance
4911
4912When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4913for C++ programs.
4914
4915 * C++ exception handling
4916
4917Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4918ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4919the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4920handler's context).
4921
4922catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4923 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4924 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4925
4926info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4927 current stack frame.
4928
4929
4930 * Minor command changes
4931
4932The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4933command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4934is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4935
4936The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4937at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4938frames without printing.
4939
4940 * New directory command
4941
4942'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4943The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4944about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4945with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4946find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4947
4948 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4949
4950For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4951for more details.
4952
4953GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4954two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4955Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4956where the program that you are debugging will run.
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