Make demangled_name_entry::language not a bitfield
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.3
5
6 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
7
8 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
9 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
10 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
11 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
12 such as in system-wide init files.
13
14 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
15 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
16 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
17 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
18
19 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
20 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
21 postfix [PAC].
22
23 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
24 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
25
26 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
27 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
28 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
29
30 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
31
32 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
33 messages.
34
35 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
36
37 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
38 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
39
40 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
41 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
42 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
43
44 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
45
46 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
47 not visible in the current scope.
48
49 * Python API
50
51 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
52 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
53 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
54 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
55 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
56
57 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
58 type was defined in.
59
60 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
61 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
62 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
63 is given.
64
65 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
66 symbols with static linkage.
67
68 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
69 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
70
71 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
72 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
73
74 * New commands
75
76 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
77 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
78 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
79 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
80 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
81 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
82 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
83
84 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
85 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
86 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
87 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
88 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
89 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
90 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
91 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
92 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
93 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
94 of array elements to print.
95
96 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
97 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
98
99 set may-call-functions [on|off]
100 show may-call-functions
101 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
102 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
103 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
104 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
105 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
106 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
107 in the program.
108
109 set print finish [on|off]
110 show print finish
111 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
112 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
113 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
114 default is `on'.
115
116 set print max-depth
117 show print max-depth
118 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
119 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
120 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
121 the old behavior back.
122
123 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
124 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
125 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
126
127 set style title foreground COLOR
128 set style title background COLOR
129 set style title intensity VALUE
130 Control the styling of titles.
131
132 set style highlight foreground COLOR
133 set style highlight background COLOR
134 set style highlight intensity VALUE
135 Control the styling of highlightings.
136
137 maint set test-settings KIND
138 maint show test-settings KIND
139 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
140 infrastructure.
141
142 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
143 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
144 show print frame-info
145 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
146 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
147 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
148 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
149
150 * Changed commands
151
152 help
153 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
154 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
155 command names.
156
157 apropos [-v] REGEXP
158 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
159 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
160 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
161 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
162 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
163
164 printf
165 eval
166 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
167 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
168 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
169 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
170
171 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
172 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
173 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
174 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
175 parts of the files.
176
177 show style
178 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
179 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
180 the user visualize the different styles.
181
182 set print frame-arguments
183 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
184 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
185
186 set print raw-frame-arguments
187 show print raw-frame-arguments
188
189 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
190 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
191 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
192 release.
193
194 maint test-options require-delimiter
195 maint test-options unknown-is-error
196 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
197 maint show test-options-completion-result
198 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
199 framework.
200
201 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
202 These commands are now case-sensitive.
203
204 * New command options, command completion
205
206 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
207 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
208 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
209 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
210 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
211 number of commands got support for new command options in this
212 release:
213
214 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
215 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
216 set by "set print" subcommands:
217
218 -address [on|off]
219 -array [on|off]
220 -array-indexes [on|off]
221 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
222 -null-stop [on|off]
223 -object [on|off]
224 -pretty [on|off]
225 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
226 -static-members [on|off]
227 -symbol [on|off]
228 -union [on|off]
229 -vtbl [on|off]
230
231 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
232 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
233 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
234 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
235
236 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
237 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
238 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
239
240 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
241 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
242 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
243 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
244 |location-and-address|short-location
245 -past-main [on|off]
246 -past-entry [on|off]
247
248 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
249 exposed as command options too:
250
251 -full
252 -no-filters
253 -hide
254
255 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
256 support the following options:
257
258 -past-main [on|off]
259 -past-entry [on|off]
260
261 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
262 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
263
264 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
265 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
266 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
267 like for example:
268
269 (gdb) p -r -p -o 0 -- *myptr
270
271 The above is equivalent to:
272
273 (gdb) print -raw -pretty -object off -- *myptr
274
275 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
276 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
277 variables" and "info functions".
278
279 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
280 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
281 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
282 from the results.
283
284 * Completion improvements
285
286 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
287 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
288 abbreviated.
289
290 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
291 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
292 commands.
293
294 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
295 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
296 completes on filenames.
297
298 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
299 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
300
301 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
302
303 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
304 elements unlimited".
305
306 * New MI commands
307
308 -complete
309 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
310 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
311 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
312
313 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
314 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
315 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
316
317 * Other MI changes
318
319 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
320
321 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
322 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
323 the following commands and events:
324
325 - -break-insert
326 - -break-info
327 - =breakpoint-created
328 - =breakpoint-modified
329
330 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
331 this behavior with previous MI versions.
332
333 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
334 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
335 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
336 present.
337
338 * Testsuite
339
340 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
341 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
342 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
343 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
344
345 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
346
347 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
348 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
349
350 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
351
352 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
353 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
354
355 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
356 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
357 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
358
359 * Removed targets and native configurations
360
361 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
362 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
363 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
364
365 * New Simulators
366
367 TI PRU pru-*-elf
368
369 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
370
371 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
372 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
373 HTM registers.
374
375 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
376 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
377 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
378 and operators.
379
380 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
381 (the C++ plug-in).
382
383 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
384 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
385 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
386
387 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
388 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
389
390 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
391 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
392 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
393 in the GDB user manual.
394
395 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
396 executed failed.
397
398 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
399
400 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
401 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
402 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
403 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
404 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
405 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
406 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
407 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
408 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
409 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
410 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
411 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
412
413 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
414 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
415 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
416 information.
417
418 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
419 lucid.
420
421 * New commands
422
423 set debug compile-cplus-types
424 show debug compile-cplus-types
425 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
426 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
427 for other languages.
428
429 set debug skip
430 show debug skip
431 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
432 displayed.
433
434 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
435 Apply a command to some frames.
436 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
437 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
438
439 taas COMMAND
440 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
441 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
442
443 faas COMMAND
444 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
445 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
446
447 tfaas COMMAND
448 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
449 output).
450 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
451
452 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
453 maint show dwarf unwinders
454 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
455
456 info proc files
457 Display a list of open files for a process.
458
459 * Changed commands
460
461 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
462 These commands all now take a frame specification which
463 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
464 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
465 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
466 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
467 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
468
469 target remote FILENAME
470 target extended-remote FILENAME
471 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
472 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
473
474 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
475 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
476 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
477 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
478 These commands can now print only the searched entities
479 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
480 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
481 printing headers or informations messages.
482
483 info functions
484 info types
485 info variables
486 rbreak
487 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
488 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
489 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
490 the shown entities.
491
492 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
493 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
494 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
495 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
496
497 set tui tab-width NCHARS
498 show tui tab-width NCHARS
499 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
500
501 set style enabled [on|off]
502 show style enabled
503 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
504 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
505
506 set style sources [on|off]
507 show style sources
508 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
509 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
510 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
511
512 set style filename foreground COLOR
513 set style filename background COLOR
514 set style filename intensity VALUE
515 Control the styling of file names.
516
517 set style function foreground COLOR
518 set style function background COLOR
519 set style function intensity VALUE
520 Control the styling of function names.
521
522 set style variable foreground COLOR
523 set style variable background COLOR
524 set style variable intensity VALUE
525 Control the styling of variable names.
526
527 set style address foreground COLOR
528 set style address background COLOR
529 set style address intensity VALUE
530 Control the styling of addresses.
531
532 * MI changes
533
534 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
535 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
536 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
537 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
538 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
539
540 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
541 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
542
543 * New native configurations
544
545 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
546 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
547
548 * New targets
549
550 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
551 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
552 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
553 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
554 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
555 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
556
557 * Removed targets
558
559 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
560 before Windows XP.
561
562 * Python API
563
564 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
565
566 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
567 space associated to that inferior.
568
569 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
570 of objfiles associated to that program space.
571
572 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
573 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
574 the gdb core.
575
576 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
577 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
578 correct and did not work properly.
579
580 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
581 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
582
583 * Configure changes
584
585 --enable-ubsan
586
587 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
588 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
589 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
590 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
591 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
592
593 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
594
595 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
596 for the MIPS target.
597
598 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
599 offset to all sections.
600
601 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
602 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
603 address of individual sections using '-s'.
604
605 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
606 (address of the text section).
607
608 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
609 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
610 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
611 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
612 default.
613
614 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
615 for the rest of the current command.
616
617 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
618 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
619
620 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
621 files created on FreeBSD systems.
622
623 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
624 alignof.
625
626 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
627 the vector length while the process is running.
628
629 * New commands
630
631 set debug fbsd-nat
632 show debug fbsd-nat
633 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
634
635 set|show varsize-limit
636 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
637 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
638 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
639
640 set|show record btrace cpu
641 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
642 branch trace decode.
643
644 maint check libthread-db
645 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
646 library
647
648 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
649 maint show check-libthread-db
650 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
651 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
652 perform such checks.
653
654 * Python API
655
656 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
657
658 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
659 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
660
661 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
662
663 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
664 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
665 of convenience variables.
666
667 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
668 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
669 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
670
671 * New targets
672
673 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
674
675 * Removed targets and native configurations
676
677 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
678 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
679 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
680 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
681
682 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
683
684 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
685 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
686 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
687 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
688 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
689 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
690 reported.
691
692 * Configure changes
693
694 --enable-codesign=CERT
695 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
696 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
697 gdb to work properly.
698
699 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
700 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
701
702 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
703
704 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
705 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
706 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
707
708 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
709 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
710
711 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
712 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
713 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
714 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
715 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
716
717 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
718 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
719 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
720 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
721
722 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
723 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
724
725 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
726 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
727 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
728
729 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
730 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
731 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
732
733 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
734 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
735 environment" command.
736
737 * Completion improvements
738
739 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
740 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
741 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
742 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
743 correctly:
744
745 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
746 (gdb) b function(int)
747
748 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
749 C++ anonymous namespaces:
750
751 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
752 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
753 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
754 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
755
756 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
757 completion support, that better understands what you're
758 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
759 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
760 setting a breakpoint.
761
762 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
763
764 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
765
766 * New command line options (gcore)
767
768 -a
769 Dump all memory mappings.
770
771 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
772
773 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
774 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
775 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
776
777 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
778
779 A::B::func()
780 B::func()
781
782 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
783 on both symbols.
784
785 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
786 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
787 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
788 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
789 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
790 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
791 a breakpoint from Python.
792
793 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
794
795 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
796 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
797 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
798
799 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
800
801 function[abi:cxx11](int)
802 ^^^^^^^^^^^
803
804 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
805 no tag, like:
806
807 (gdb) b function(int)
808
809 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
810
811 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
812
813 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
814
815 * Python Scripting
816
817 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
818 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
819 description of these.
820
821 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
822 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
823 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
824
825 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
826 manual for a further description of this feature.
827
828
829 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
830
831 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
832 specified initial working directory.
833
834 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
835 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
836
837 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
838 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
839
840 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
841 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
842
843 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
844 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
845 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
846 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
847 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
848
849 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
850 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
851 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
852
853 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
854 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
855 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
856 in the *stopped notification.
857
858 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
859 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
860
861 * New remote packets
862
863 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
864 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
865 the inferior when starting it.
866
867 QEnvironmentUnset
868 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
869 before starting the remote inferior.
870
871 QEnvironmentReset
872 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
873 user-set environment variables should be unset).
874
875 QStartupWithShell
876 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
877
878 QSetWorkingDir
879 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
880 working directory.
881
882 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
883 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
884
885 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
886 filter the tests to be run.
887
888 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
889 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
890
891 * New commands
892
893 set|show cwd
894 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
895
896 set|show compile-gcc
897 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
898 with the 'compile' commands.
899
900 set debug separate-debug-file
901 show debug separate-debug-file
902 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
903
904 set dump-excluded-mappings
905 show dump-excluded-mappings
906 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
907 dumped when generating a core file.
908
909 maint info selftests
910 List the registered selftests.
911
912 starti
913 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
914
915 set|show debug or1k
916 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
917
918 set|show print type nested-type-limit
919 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
920 type printer will show.
921
922 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
923 `o' for nexti.
924
925 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
926
927 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
928 'int'.
929
930 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
931 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
932 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
933 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
934
935 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
936 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
937 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
938 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
939 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
940 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
941
942 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
943 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
944 unless you tell it the variable's type:
945
946 (gdb) p var
947 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
948 (gdb) p (float) var
949 $3 = 3.14
950
951 * New native configurations
952
953 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
954 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
955
956 * New targets
957
958 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
959 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
960 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
961
962 * Removed targets and native configurations
963
964 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
965
966 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
967
968 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
969 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
970 available in future Intel CPUs.
971
972 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
973
974 * Python Scripting
975
976 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
977 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
978
979 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
980 instructions.
981
982 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
983
984 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
985
986 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
987 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
988 removed.
989
990 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
991
992 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
993 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
994
995 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
996
997 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
998 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
999 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1000 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1001 features.
1002
1003 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1004
1005 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1006 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1007 debugger.
1008
1009 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1010
1011 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1012 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1013
1014 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1015
1016 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1017
1018 define mycommand
1019 set $i = 0
1020 while $i < $argc
1021 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1022 set $i = $i + 1
1023 end
1024 end
1025
1026 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1027
1028 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1029 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1030
1031 * New native configurations
1032
1033 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1034
1035 * New targets
1036
1037 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1038 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1039
1040 * Removed targets and native configurations
1041
1042 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1043 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1044
1045 * New commands
1046
1047 flash-erase
1048 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1049
1050 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1051 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1052
1053 * New options
1054
1055 set disassembler-options
1056 show disassembler-options
1057 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1058 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1059 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1060 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1061 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1062
1063 * New MI commands
1064
1065 -target-flash-erase
1066 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1067 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1068
1069 -file-list-shared-libraries
1070 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1071 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1072
1073 -catch-handlers
1074 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1075 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1076
1077 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1078
1079 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1080
1081 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1082 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1083 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1084 option will be removed in a future release.
1085
1086 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1087 GDB connection.
1088
1089 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1090 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1091
1092 (gdb) bt
1093 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1094 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1095 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1096 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1097 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1098 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1099 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1100 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1101 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1102
1103 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1104 arrays of dynamic types.
1105
1106 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1107 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1108 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1109 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1110 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1111 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1112
1113 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1114 descriptions.
1115
1116 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1117 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1118 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1119
1120 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1121
1122 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1123 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1124 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1125 signal received and code location.
1126
1127 For example:
1128
1129 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1130 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1131 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1132 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1133
1134 * Rust language support.
1135 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1136 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1137 Rust.
1138
1139 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1140
1141 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1142 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1143 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1144 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1145 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1146 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1147 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1148 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1149 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1150 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1151 line.
1152
1153 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1154
1155 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1156 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1157
1158 * New commands
1159
1160 skip -file file
1161 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1162 skip -function function
1163 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1164 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1165 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1166 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1167
1168 maint info line-table REGEXP
1169 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
1170
1171 maint selftest
1172 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1173
1174 new-ui INTERP TTY
1175 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1176 using the TTY file for input/output.
1177
1178 * Python Scripting
1179
1180 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1181 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1182 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1183 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1184 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1185
1186 signal-event EVENTID
1187 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1188 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1189 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1190 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1191 signalling an event.
1192
1193 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1194 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1195 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1196
1197 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1198 been removed:
1199
1200 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1201 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1202 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1203 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1204 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1205 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1206
1207 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1208 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1209 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1210 bytecode into native code.
1211
1212 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1213 recording. For example:
1214
1215 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1216
1217 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1218
1219 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1220
1221 * New targets
1222
1223 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1224
1225 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1226
1227 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1228
1229 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1230
1231 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1232 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1233 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1234
1235 (gdb) info threads
1236 Id Target Id Frame
1237 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1238 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1239 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1240 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1241
1242 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1243 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1244 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1245
1246 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1247 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1248 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1249
1250 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1251 IDs.
1252
1253 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1254 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1255
1256 (gdb) thread 2.1
1257 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1258 (gdb)
1259
1260 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1261 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1262 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1263 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1264 threads 2.*".
1265
1266 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1267 all threads.
1268
1269 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1270 the current thread.
1271
1272 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1273 current inferior.
1274
1275 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1276 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1277 example:
1278
1279 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1280 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1281
1282 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1283
1284 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1285
1286 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1287 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1288
1289 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1290 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1291 clients.
1292
1293 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1294 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1295 at the same time.
1296
1297 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1298 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1299 into native code.
1300
1301 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1302
1303 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1304 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1305 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1306
1307 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1308 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1309
1310 * New commands
1311
1312 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1313 maint show target-non-stop
1314 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1315 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1316 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1317
1318 maint set bfd-sharing
1319 maint show bfd-sharing
1320 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1321
1322 set debug bfd-cache
1323 show debug bfd-cache
1324 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1325
1326 set debug fbsd-lwp
1327 show debug fbsd-lwp
1328 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1329
1330 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1331 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1332 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1333
1334 set remote thread-events
1335 show remote thread-events
1336 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1337
1338 set ada print-signatures on|off
1339 show ada print-signatures"
1340 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1341 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
1342
1343 set max-value-size
1344 show max-value-size
1345 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1346 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1347 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1348
1349 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1350 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1351 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1352 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1353 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1354 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1355
1356 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1357 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1358
1359 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1360 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1361
1362 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1363
1364 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1365 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1366 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1367 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1368 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1369 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1370
1371 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1372 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1373
1374 catch handlers
1375 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1376
1377 * New remote packets
1378
1379 exec stop reason
1380 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1381
1382 exec-events feature in qSupported
1383 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1384 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1385 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1386 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1387
1388 vCtrlC
1389 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1390 non-stop mode.
1391
1392 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1393 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1394
1395 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1396 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1397
1398 QThreadEvents
1399 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1400 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1401 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1402 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1403 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1404 stop for that same thread.
1405
1406 N stop reply
1407 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1408 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1409 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1410
1411 QCatchSyscalls
1412 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1413 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1414
1415 syscall_entry stop reason
1416 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1417
1418 syscall_return stop reason
1419 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1420
1421 * Extended-remote exec events
1422
1423 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1424 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1425 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1426
1427 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1428 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1429 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1430
1431 * Thread names in remote protocol
1432
1433 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1434 thread.
1435
1436 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1437
1438 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1439 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1440 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1441 fork and exec catchpoints.
1442
1443 * Remote syscall events
1444
1445 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1446 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1447
1448 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1449 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1450 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1451
1452 * MI changes
1453
1454 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1455 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1456 left.
1457
1458 * Python Scripting
1459
1460 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1461 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1462 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1463 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1464 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1465 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1466
1467 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1468
1469 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1470 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1471 including advance SIMD instructions.
1472
1473 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1474
1475 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1476 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1477 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1478 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1479 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1480 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1481 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1482
1483 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1484 cpu information :
1485 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1486
1487 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1488 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1489 remote serial I/O.
1490
1491 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1492 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1493 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1494
1495 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1496 is now available on all platforms.
1497
1498 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1499 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1500 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1501 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1502 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1503 backward compatibility.
1504
1505 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1506 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1507 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1508 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1509
1510 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1511 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1512 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1513 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1514 packets" below.
1515
1516 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1517
1518 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1519
1520 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1521 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1522 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1523 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1524 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1525 See "New remote packets" below.
1526
1527 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1528 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1529
1530 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1531 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1532 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1533 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1534 are ignored.
1535
1536 * Guile Scripting
1537
1538 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1539
1540 * Python Scripting
1541
1542 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1543 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1544 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1545 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1546 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1547 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1548 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1549 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1550 "const" version of the value respectively.
1551
1552 * New commands
1553
1554 maint print symbol-cache
1555 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1556
1557 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1558 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1559
1560 maint flush-symbol-cache
1561 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1562
1563 record btrace bts
1564 record bts
1565 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1566
1567 compile print
1568 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1569
1570 tui enable
1571 tui disable
1572 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1573
1574 show mpx bound
1575 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1576 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1577
1578 record btrace pt
1579 record pt
1580 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1581
1582 maint info btrace
1583 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1584
1585 maint btrace packet-history
1586 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1587
1588 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1589 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1590
1591 maint btrace clear
1592 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1593 anew by the next "record" command.
1594
1595 * New options
1596
1597 set debug dwarf-die
1598 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1599 show debug dwarf-die
1600 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1601
1602 set debug dwarf-read
1603 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1604 show debug dwarf-read
1605 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1606
1607 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1608 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1609 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1610 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1611
1612 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1613 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1614 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1615 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1616
1617 set debug dwarf-line
1618 show debug dwarf-line
1619 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1620
1621 set max-completions
1622 show max-completions
1623 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1624 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1625 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1626 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1627
1628 set history remove-duplicates
1629 show history remove-duplicates
1630 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1631
1632 maint set symbol-cache-size
1633 maint show symbol-cache-size
1634 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1635
1636 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1637 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1638 BTS format.
1639 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1640 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1641
1642 set debug linux-namespaces
1643 show debug linux-namespaces
1644 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1645
1646 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1647 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1648 Intel Processor Trace format.
1649 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1650 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1651
1652 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1653 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1654 packet history.
1655
1656 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1657 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1658
1659 * Python/Guile scripting
1660
1661 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1662 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1663
1664 * New remote packets
1665
1666 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1667 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1668
1669 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1670 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1671
1672 Qbtrace:pt
1673 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1674 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1675 qSupported query.
1676
1677 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1678 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1679 Trace format.
1680
1681 swbreak stop reason
1682 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1683 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1684 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1685 mode operation.
1686
1687 hwbreak stop reason
1688 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1689 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1690
1691 vFile:fstat:
1692 Return information about files on the remote system.
1693
1694 qXfer:exec-file:read
1695 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1696 create a process running on the remote system.
1697
1698 vFile:setfs:
1699 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1700 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1701 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1702 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1703
1704 fork stop reason
1705 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1706
1707 vfork stop reason
1708 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1709
1710 vforkdone stop reason
1711 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1712 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1713
1714 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1715 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1716 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1717 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1718 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1719 whether these features are enabled.
1720
1721 * Extended-remote fork events
1722
1723 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1724 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1725 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1726 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1727
1728 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1729 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1730 the btrace record target.
1731 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1732
1733 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1734 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1735
1736 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1737 targets.
1738
1739 * Removed command line options
1740
1741 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1742
1743 * Removed targets and native configurations
1744
1745 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1746 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1747
1748 * New configure options
1749
1750 --with-intel-pt
1751 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1752 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1753
1754 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1755 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1756 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1757 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1758
1759 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1760
1761 * Python Scripting
1762
1763 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1764
1765 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1766
1767 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1768
1769 * Python Scripting
1770
1771 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1772 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1773 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1774 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1775 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1776 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1777 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1778 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1779 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1780 selecting a new file to debug.
1781 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1782 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1783
1784 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1785 inferior.
1786
1787 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1788 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1789 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1790 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1791
1792 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1793
1794 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1795 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1796 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1797 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1798
1799 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1800 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1801 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1802 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1803 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1804 interface with this new feature are:
1805
1806 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1807 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1808
1809 * New commands
1810
1811 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1812 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1813 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1814 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1815 as "maint demangler-warning".
1816
1817 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1818 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1819
1820 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1821 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1822 scripts.
1823
1824 maint print user-registers
1825 List all currently available "user" registers.
1826
1827 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1828 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1829 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1830
1831 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1832 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1833 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1834 provided.
1835
1836 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1837 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1838 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1839 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1840 at resume time.
1841
1842 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1843 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1844 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1845 switched threads meanwhile.
1846
1847 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1848
1849 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1850 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1851 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1852 is now the default mode.
1853
1854 * New options
1855
1856 set debug symbol-lookup
1857 show debug symbol-lookup
1858 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1859
1860 * MI changes
1861
1862 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1863 inferiors that have exited.
1864
1865 * New targets
1866
1867 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1868
1869 * Removed targets
1870
1871 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1872
1873 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1874 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1875 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1876 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1877 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1878
1879 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1880 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1881 its alias "share", instead.
1882
1883 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1884
1885 * New command line options
1886
1887 -D data-directory
1888 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1889
1890 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1891 as specified in ISO C99.
1892
1893 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1894 with or without disassembly.
1895
1896 * Guile scripting
1897
1898 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1899 available is determined at configure time.
1900 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1901 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1902
1903 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1904
1905 guile [code]
1906 gu [code]
1907 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1908
1909 guile-repl
1910 gr
1911 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1912
1913 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1914 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1915
1916 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1917 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1918
1919 * New options
1920
1921 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1922 show print symbol-loading
1923 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1924 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1925 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1926 becomes less useful.
1927
1928 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1929 show guile print-stack
1930 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1931
1932 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1933 show auto-load guile-scripts
1934 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1935
1936 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1937 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1938 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1939 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1940 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1941 usage of this option.
1942
1943 set auto-connect-native-target
1944
1945 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1946 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1947 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1948
1949 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1950 show record btrace replay-memory-access
1951 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1952
1953 maint set target-async (on|off)
1954 maint show target-async
1955 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1956 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1957 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1958 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1959
1960 set mi-async (on|off)
1961 show mi-async
1962 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1963 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1964
1965 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1966 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1967
1968 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1969 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1970 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1971 "set target-async on" command.
1972
1973 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1974
1975 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1976 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1977 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1978 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1979 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1980
1981 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1982 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1983 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1984
1985 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1986 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1987 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1988 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1989 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1990 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1991 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1992
1993 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1994 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1995
1996 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1997 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1998 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1999
2000 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2001 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2002 memory or registers.
2003
2004 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2005
2006 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2007 remote. It now works with all targets.
2008
2009 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2010 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2011 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2012 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2013 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2014 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2015 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2016 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2017 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2018 target-stack".
2019
2020 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2021 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2022 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2023
2024 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2025
2026 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2027 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2028 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2029
2030 * New remote packets
2031
2032 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2033 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2034 branch trace incrementally.
2035
2036 * Python Scripting
2037
2038 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2039 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2040 available.
2041 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2042 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2043 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2044 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2045 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2046
2047 * New targets
2048 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2049
2050 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2051 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2052 its alias "share", instead.
2053
2054 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2055 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2056 instead.
2057
2058 * MI changes
2059
2060 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2061 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2062 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2063 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2064 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2065 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2066 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2067 commands and CLI execution commands.
2068
2069 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2070
2071 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2072 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2073 recording has been added.
2074
2075 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2076
2077 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2078 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2079
2080 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2081 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2082 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2083 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2084 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2085 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2086 "void".
2087
2088 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2089
2090 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2091
2092 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2093 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2094 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2095 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2096
2097 (gdb) p $rax
2098 $1 = <not saved>
2099
2100 (gdb) info registers rax
2101 rax <not saved>
2102
2103 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2104 "*value not available*".
2105
2106 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2107 to binaries.
2108
2109 * Python scripting
2110
2111 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2112 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2113 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2114 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2115 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2116 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2117
2118 * New targets
2119
2120 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2121 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2122 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2123
2124 * Removed native configurations
2125
2126 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2127 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2128
2129 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2130 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2131 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2132 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2133 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2134 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2135 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2136
2137 * New commands:
2138 catch rethrow
2139 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2140 maint check-psymtabs
2141 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2142 maint check-symtabs
2143 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2144 maint expand-symtabs
2145 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2146
2147 show configuration
2148 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2149
2150 maint set|show per-command
2151 maint set|show per-command space
2152 maint set|show per-command time
2153 maint set|show per-command symtab
2154 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2155
2156 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2157 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2158 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2159 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2160 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2161
2162 info exceptions
2163 info exceptions REGEXP
2164 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2165 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2166 are listed.
2167
2168 * New options
2169
2170 set debug symfile off|on
2171 show debug symfile
2172 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2173 symbol tables within those files
2174
2175 set print raw frame-arguments
2176 show print raw frame-arguments
2177 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2178 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2179
2180 set remote trace-status-packet
2181 show remote trace-status-packet
2182 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2183
2184 set debug nios2
2185 show debug nios2
2186 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2187
2188 set range-stepping
2189 show range-stepping
2190 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2191
2192 set startup-with-shell
2193 show startup-with-shell
2194 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2195 directly.
2196
2197 set code-cache
2198 show code-cache
2199 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2200 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2201
2202 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2203 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2204 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2205 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2206 "set height 0".
2207
2208 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2209 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2210 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2211
2212 * New command-line options
2213 --configuration
2214 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2215
2216 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2217 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2218
2219 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2220 GDB command gcore.
2221
2222 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2223
2224 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2225 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2226
2227 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2228 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2229
2230 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2231 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2232 due to an uncaught signal.
2233
2234 * MI changes
2235
2236 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2237 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2238 command, which should contain "language-option".
2239
2240 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2241 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2242
2243 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2244 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2245 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2246 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2247 "undefined-command-error-code".
2248
2249 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2250 Trace Format now.
2251
2252 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2253
2254 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2255 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2256 are displayed.
2257
2258 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2259 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2260
2261 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2262 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2263 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2264
2265 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2266 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2267 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2268 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2269 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2270 "exec-run-start-option".
2271
2272 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2273 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2274
2275 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2276 the new "info exceptions" command.
2277
2278 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2279 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2280 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2281 ** ElinOS
2282 ** Wind River Linux
2283
2284 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2285 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2286 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2287 below.
2288
2289 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2290 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2291
2292 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2293 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2294 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2295
2296 * New remote packets
2297
2298 vCont;r
2299
2300 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2301 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2302 involvemement at each single-step.
2303
2304 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2305 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2306 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2307 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2308 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2309 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2310 speedup.
2311
2312 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2313
2314 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2315 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2316
2317 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2318 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2319 trace state variables.
2320
2321 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2322 target.
2323
2324 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2325 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2326
2327 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2328
2329 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2330 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2331 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2332 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2333
2334 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2335
2336 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2337 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2338 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2339 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2340
2341 set|show record full insn-number-max
2342 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2343 set|show record full memory-query
2344
2345 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2346 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2347 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2348 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2349 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2350
2351 record btrace
2352
2353 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2354 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2355
2356 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2357 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2358 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2359
2360 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2361 instruction granularity
2362
2363 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2364 function granularity
2365
2366 * New native configurations
2367
2368 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2369 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2370 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2371 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2372
2373 * New targets
2374
2375 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2376 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2377 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2378 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2379 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2380
2381 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2382 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2383 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2384 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2385 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2386 --data-directory command-line option.
2387
2388 * New command line options:
2389
2390 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2391 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2392
2393 * Removed command line options
2394
2395 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2396 Emacs.
2397
2398 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2399 type formatting.
2400
2401 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2402
2403 * Python scripting
2404
2405 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2406
2407 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2408
2409 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2410
2411 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2412
2413 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2414 of architecture in the Python API.
2415
2416 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2417 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2418
2419 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2420
2421 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2422 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2423 ** $_strlen(str)
2424 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2425
2426 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2427 given an argument.
2428
2429 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2430 default for GCC since November 2000.
2431
2432 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2433
2434 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2435 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2436
2437 * New configure options
2438
2439 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2440 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2441 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2442 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2443 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2444 options allow the user to override that default.
2445 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2446 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2447 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2448
2449 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2450
2451 catch signal
2452 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2453 conditions to be attached.
2454
2455 maint info bfds
2456 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2457
2458 python-interactive [command]
2459 pi [command]
2460 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2461 and print the result of expressions.
2462
2463 py [command]
2464 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2465
2466 enable type-printer [name]...
2467 disable type-printer [name]...
2468 Enable or disable type printers.
2469
2470 * Removed commands
2471
2472 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2473 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2474 instead.
2475
2476 * New options
2477
2478 set print type methods (on|off)
2479 show print type methods
2480 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2481 The default is to show them.
2482
2483 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2484 show print type typedefs
2485 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2486 The default is to show them.
2487
2488 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2489 show filename-display
2490 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2491 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2492
2493 set trace-buffer-size
2494 show trace-buffer-size
2495 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2496
2497 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2498 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2499 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2500
2501 set debug aarch64
2502 show debug aarch64
2503 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2504 The default is off.
2505
2506 set debug coff-pe-read
2507 show debug coff-pe-read
2508 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2509 exported symbols.
2510
2511 set debug mach-o
2512 show debug mach-o
2513 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2514 processing.
2515
2516 set debug notification
2517 show debug notification
2518 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2519
2520 * MI changes
2521
2522 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2523 "=cmd-param-changed".
2524 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2525 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2526 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2527 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2528 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2529 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2530 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2531 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2532 "=memory-changed".
2533 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2534 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2535 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2536 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2537 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2538 library load/unload events.
2539 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2540 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2541 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2542 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2543 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2544 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2545 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2546 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2547
2548 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2549 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2550 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2551 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2552
2553 * New remote packets
2554
2555 QTBuffer:size
2556 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2557 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2558
2559 Qbtrace:bts
2560 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2561 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2562 qSupported query.
2563
2564 Qbtrace:off
2565 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2566 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2567
2568 qXfer:btrace:read
2569 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2570 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2571
2572 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2573
2574 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2575 for more x32 ABI info.
2576
2577 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2578
2579 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2580
2581 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2582 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2583 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2584 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2585 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2586 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2587 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2588 "info os msg" lists message queues
2589 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2590
2591 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2592 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2593 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2594 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2595 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2596 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2597
2598 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2599 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2600 record/replay support.
2601
2602 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2603
2604 * Python scripting
2605
2606 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2607 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2608
2609 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2610
2611 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2612 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2613
2614 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2615
2616 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2617 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2618
2619 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2620 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2621 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2622 symbol's value.
2623
2624 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2625 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2626
2627 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2628 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2629 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2630
2631 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2632 object associated with a PC value.
2633
2634 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2635 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2636
2637 * Go language support.
2638 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2639 language.
2640
2641 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2642 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2643
2644 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2645 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2646
2647 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2648 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2649 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2650 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2651 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2652 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2653
2654 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2655 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2656 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2657 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2658
2659 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2660 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2661
2662 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2663 since December 2007.
2664
2665 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2666 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2667 command does. For instance:
2668
2669 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2670
2671 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2672 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2673 created, using the "condition" command.
2674
2675 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2676 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2677
2678 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2679
2680 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2681 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2682 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2683 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2684 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2685 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2686 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2687 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2688
2689 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2690 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2691 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2692 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2693 the .gdb_index section.
2694
2695 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2696
2697 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2698 target.
2699
2700 * MI changes
2701
2702 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2703
2704 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2705
2706 * New commands
2707
2708 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2709 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2710 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2711
2712 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2713 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2714
2715 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2716 several hits.
2717
2718 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2719 C++ and Java objects.
2720
2721 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2722 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2723 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2724 configured with '--with-python'.
2725
2726 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2727 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2728 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2729 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2730 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2731 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2732 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2733
2734 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2735 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2736 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2737 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2738
2739 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2740 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2741 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2742 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2743
2744 ** "set print symbol"
2745 "show print symbol"
2746 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2747 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2748 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2749
2750 * Deprecated commands
2751
2752 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2753 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2754
2755 * New targets
2756
2757 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2758 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2759
2760 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2761 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2762 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2763 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2764 evaluates to true.
2765
2766 * New options
2767
2768 set mips compression
2769 show mips compression
2770 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2771 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2772 mips16
2773 micromips
2774 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2775
2776 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2777 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2778 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2779 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2780 available mode.
2781 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2782 target.
2783
2784 set auto-load off
2785 Disable auto-loading globally.
2786
2787 show auto-load
2788 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2789
2790 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2791 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2792 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2793
2794 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2795 show auto-load python-scripts
2796 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2797
2798 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2799 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2800 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2801
2802 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2803 show auto-load libthread-db
2804 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2805
2806 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2807 show auto-load scripts-directory
2808 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2809 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2810 of the directories listed by this option.
2811 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2812
2813 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2814 show auto-load safe-path
2815 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2816 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2817
2818 set debug auto-load on|off
2819 show debug auto-load
2820 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2821
2822 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2823 show dprintf-style
2824 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2825 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2826 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2827 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2828
2829 set dprintf-function <expr>
2830 show dprintf-function
2831 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2832 show dprintf-channel
2833 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2834 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2835
2836 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2837 show disconnected-dprintf
2838 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2839 after GDB disconnects.
2840
2841 * New configure options
2842
2843 --with-auto-load-dir
2844 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2845 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2846 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2847 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2848 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2849
2850 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2851 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2852 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2853
2854 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2855 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2856 security feature.
2857
2858 * New remote packets
2859
2860 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2861
2862 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2863 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2864 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2865 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2866
2867 QProgramSignals:
2868
2869 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2870 program without GDB involvement.
2871
2872 * New command line options
2873
2874 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2875 before loading inferior.
2876 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2877 execute it before loading inferior.
2878
2879 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2880
2881 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2882 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2883 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2884 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2885 inferior changes.
2886
2887 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2888 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2889
2890 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2891 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2892 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2893 target hardware watchpoint.
2894
2895 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2896 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2897 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2898 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2899
2900 * Python scripting
2901
2902 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2903 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2904 existing one.
2905
2906 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2907 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2908 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2909 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2910 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2911 the stack trace.
2912
2913 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2914 Python API.
2915
2916 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2917 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2918 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2919 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2920 corresponding value.
2921
2922 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2923 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2924 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2925 on GDB start-up.
2926
2927 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2928 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2929 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2930 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2931
2932 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2933
2934 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2935 "gdb.breakpoints".
2936
2937 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2938 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2939 available in the CLI.
2940
2941 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2942 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2943 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2944 "some_type.items()".
2945
2946 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2947 new object file.
2948
2949 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2950 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2951 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2952 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2953 any anonymous fields.
2954
2955 * MI changes
2956
2957 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2958 "solib-event".
2959
2960 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2961 "=breakpoint-modified".
2962
2963 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2964
2965 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2966 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2967 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2968 lives.
2969
2970 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2971 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2972 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2973 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2974 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2975
2976 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2977 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2978
2979 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2980 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2981 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2982 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2983 use this option to specify where to find it.
2984
2985 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2986 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2987 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2988 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2989 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2990 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2991 section in the user manual for more details.
2992
2993 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2994 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2995 become available after that.
2996
2997 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2998
2999 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3000 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3001 gcc version 4.7.
3002
3003 * New commands
3004
3005 !SHELL COMMAND
3006 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3007 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3008
3009 * Changed commands
3010
3011 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3012 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3013 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3014
3015 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3016 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3017 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3018
3019 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3020 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3021 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3022 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3023 name starts with a hyphen.
3024
3025 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3026 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3027 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3028 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3029 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3030 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3031 number of bytes that will be collected.
3032
3033 tstart [NOTES]
3034 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3035 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3036 setting the variable trace-notes.
3037
3038 tstop [NOTES]
3039 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3040 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3041 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3042 trace-stop-notes.
3043
3044 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3045 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3046 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3047 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3048 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3049 is running.
3050
3051 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3052 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3053 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3054
3055 * New options
3056
3057 set debug dwarf2-read
3058 show debug dwarf2-read
3059 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3060 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3061
3062 set debug symtab-create
3063 show debug symtab-create
3064 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3065 creation. The default is off.
3066
3067 set extended-prompt
3068 show extended-prompt
3069 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3070 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3071 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3072 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3073 prompt is displayed.
3074
3075 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3076 show print entry-values
3077 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3078 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3079 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3080
3081 set debug entry-values
3082 show debug entry-values
3083 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3084 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3085
3086 set basenames-may-differ
3087 show basenames-may-differ
3088 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3089 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3090 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3091 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3092 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3093 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3094 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3095 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3096
3097 set trace-user
3098 show trace-user
3099 set trace-notes
3100 show trace-notes
3101 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3102 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3103 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3104 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3105
3106 set trace-stop-notes
3107 show trace-stop-notes
3108 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3109 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3110 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3111 started by someone else.
3112
3113 * New remote packets
3114
3115 QTEnable
3116
3117 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3118
3119 QTDisable
3120
3121 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3122
3123 QTNotes
3124
3125 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3126
3127 qTP
3128
3129 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3130
3131 qTMinFTPILen
3132
3133 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3134 be placed.
3135
3136 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3137 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3138
3139 * New targets
3140
3141 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3142
3143 * New Simulators
3144
3145 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3146
3147 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3148
3149 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3150
3151 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3152
3153 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3154 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3155 matches the given regular expression.
3156
3157 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3158
3159 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3160 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3161
3162 * New command line options
3163
3164 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3165 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3166
3167 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3168 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3169
3170 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3171 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3172 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3173
3174 * GDB now understands thread names.
3175
3176 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3177 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3178
3179 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3180 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3181
3182 * OpenCL C
3183 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3184 has been integrated into GDB.
3185
3186 * Python scripting
3187
3188 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3189 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3190 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3191
3192 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3193 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3194 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3195 and allows for more dynamic content.
3196
3197 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3198 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3199 have an is_valid method.
3200
3201 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3202 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3203 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3204
3205 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3206
3207 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3208 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3209 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3210 that function like so:
3211
3212 result = some_value (10,20)
3213
3214 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3215 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3216 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3217
3218 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3219 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3220 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3221 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3222 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3223
3224 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3225 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3226
3227 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3228
3229 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3230 selected thread.
3231
3232 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3233 holds the thread's name.
3234
3235 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3236 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3237 occurring in the process being debugged.
3238 The following events are currently supported:
3239 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3240 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3241 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3242
3243 * C++ Improvements:
3244
3245 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3246 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3247
3248 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3249
3250 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3251 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3252 was added to GCC 4.5.
3253
3254 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3255 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3256 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3257 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3258 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3259 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3260
3261 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3262 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3263 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3264 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3265 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3266
3267 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3268 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3269 execution to a label.
3270
3271 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3272 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3273 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3274 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3275
3276 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3277 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3278 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3279 of scope.
3280
3281 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3282
3283 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3284 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3285 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3286 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3287 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3288 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3289
3290 (gdb) info threads
3291 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3292
3293 While now you see this:
3294
3295 (gdb) info threads
3296 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3297
3298 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3299 dumps.
3300
3301 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3302 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3303 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3304 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3305
3306 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3307 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3308 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3309 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3310 section in the user manual for more details.
3311
3312 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3313
3314 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3315 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3316
3317 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3318
3319 * New native configurations
3320
3321 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3322
3323 * New targets:
3324
3325 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3326
3327 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3328 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3329 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3330 in the GDB user manual.
3331
3332 * Guile support was removed.
3333
3334 * New features in the GNU simulator
3335
3336 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3337
3338 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3339
3340 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3341
3342 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3343
3344 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3345 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3346 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3347 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3348 was always disabled for such configurations.
3349
3350 * C++ Improvements:
3351
3352 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3353
3354 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3355 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3356 For example:
3357 namespace A
3358 {
3359 class B { };
3360 void foo (B) { }
3361 }
3362 ...
3363 A::B b
3364 foo(b)
3365 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3366 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3367 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3368
3369 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3370
3371 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3372 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3373 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3374 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3375 entry.
3376 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3377 mentioned flavors of operators.
3378
3379 ** static const class members
3380
3381 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3382 class definition has been fixed.
3383
3384 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3385
3386 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3387 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3388 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3389 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3390 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3391 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3392
3393 * Static tracepoints
3394
3395 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3396 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3397 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3398 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3399 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3400 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3401 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3402 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3403 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3404 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3405 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3406 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3407 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3408 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3409 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3410 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3411 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3412 the "New remote packets" section below.
3413
3414 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3415
3416 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3417 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3418 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3419 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3420
3421 * Observer mode
3422
3423 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3424 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3425 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3426 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3427 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3428 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3429 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3430
3431 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3432 current thread.
3433
3434 * New remote packets
3435
3436 qGetTIBAddr
3437
3438 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3439
3440 qRelocInsn
3441
3442 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3443 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3444 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3445 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3446 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3447 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3448
3449 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
3450
3451 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3452
3453 qTSTMat
3454
3455 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3456 program.
3457
3458 qXfer:statictrace:read
3459
3460 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3461 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3462 to gdb's qSupported query.
3463
3464 QAllow
3465
3466 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3467
3468 QTDPsrc
3469
3470 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3471 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3472
3473 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3474 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3475 a directory.
3476
3477 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3478
3479 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3480 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3481 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3482 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3483
3484 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3485 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3486 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3487 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3488 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3489 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3490 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3491
3492 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3493 for static tracepoints support.
3494
3495 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3496
3497 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3498 it understands register description.
3499
3500 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3501
3502 * X86 general purpose registers
3503
3504 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3505 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3506 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3507 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3508 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3509
3510 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3511 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3512 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3513 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3514 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3515 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3516
3517 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3518 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3519 in the specified file.
3520
3521 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3522 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3523 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3524 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3525 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3526 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3527 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3528 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3529 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3530 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3531
3532 * New commands
3533
3534 eval template, expressions...
3535 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3536 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3537
3538 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3539 show target-file-system-kind
3540 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3541 names.
3542
3543 save breakpoints <filename>
3544 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3545 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3546 definitions, use the `source' command.
3547
3548 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3549 is now deprecated.
3550
3551 info static-tracepoint-markers
3552 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3553
3554 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3555 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3556 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3557
3558 set observer on|off
3559 show observer
3560 Enable and disable observer mode.
3561
3562 set may-write-registers on|off
3563 set may-write-memory on|off
3564 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3565 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3566 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3567 set may-interrupt on|off
3568 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3569 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3570 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3571 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3572 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3573 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3574 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3575
3576 set record memory-query on|off
3577 show record memory-query
3578 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3579 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3580
3581 * Changed commands
3582
3583 disassemble
3584 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3585
3586 * Python scripting
3587
3588 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3589 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3590 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3591 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3592 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3593
3594 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3595 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3596 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3597 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3598
3599 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3600 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3601
3602 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3603
3604 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3605
3606 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3607
3608 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3609 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3610 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3611
3612 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3613 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3614 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3615 regular breakpoints.
3616
3617 * New targets
3618
3619 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3620
3621 * D language support.
3622 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3623 language.
3624
3625 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3626 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3627 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3628 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3629 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3630
3631 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3632 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3633 conditions of the form:
3634
3635 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3636
3637 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3638 interface mentioned above.
3639
3640 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3641
3642 * C++ Improvements
3643
3644 ** Namespace Support
3645
3646 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3647 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3648 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3649 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3650 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3651
3652 ** Bug Fixes
3653
3654 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3655 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3656 qualified name.
3657
3658 ** Cast Operators
3659
3660 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3661 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3662
3663 * New targets
3664
3665 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3666 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3667
3668 * New Simulators
3669
3670 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3671 Renesas RX rx
3672
3673 * Multi-program debugging.
3674
3675 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3676 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3677 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3678 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3679 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3680 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3681 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3682 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3683
3684 * New tracing features
3685
3686 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3687
3688 ** Trace state variables
3689
3690 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3691 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3692 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3693 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3694 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3695 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3696 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3697 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3698 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3699 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3700
3701 ** Fast tracepoints
3702
3703 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3704 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3705 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3706 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3707 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3708 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3709 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3710 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3711 the regular trace command.
3712
3713 ** Disconnected tracing
3714
3715 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3716 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3717 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3718 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3719 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3720
3721 ** Trace files
3722
3723 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3724 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3725 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3726 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3727 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3728 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3729 <name>".
3730
3731 ** Circular trace buffer
3732
3733 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3734 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3735 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3736 not be available for all target agents.
3737
3738 * Changed commands
3739
3740 disassemble
3741 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3742 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3743
3744 info variables
3745 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3746 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3747
3748 source
3749 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3750 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3751 support.
3752
3753 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3754 "set script-extension" (see below).
3755
3756 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3757
3758 record save [<FILENAME>]
3759 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3760 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3761
3762 record restore <FILENAME>
3763 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3764 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3765
3766 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3767 Add a new inferior.
3768
3769 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3770 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3771 inferior has loaded.
3772
3773 remove-inferior ID
3774 Remove an inferior.
3775
3776 maint info program-spaces
3777 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3778
3779 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3780 show remote interrupt-sequence
3781 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3782 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3783 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3784 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3785 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3786
3787 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3788 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3789 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3790 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3791 Linux kernel.
3792
3793 set remotebreak [on | off]
3794 show remotebreak
3795 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3796
3797 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3798 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3799
3800 info tvariables
3801 List trace state variables and their values.
3802
3803 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3804 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3805
3806 teval EXPR, ...
3807 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3808 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3809
3810 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3811 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3812
3813 * New expression syntax
3814
3815 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3816 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3817
3818 * New options
3819
3820 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3821 show follow-exec-mode
3822 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3823 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3824 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3825
3826 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3827 show default-collect
3828 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3829 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3830 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3831
3832 set disconnected-tracing
3833 show disconnected-tracing
3834 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3835 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3836 upon disconnection.
3837
3838 set circular-trace-buffer
3839 show circular-trace-buffer
3840 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3841 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3842 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3843 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3844
3845 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3846 show script-extension
3847 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3848 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3849 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3850 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3851 evaluation failed.
3852 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3853
3854 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3855 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3856 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3857 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3858 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3859 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3860 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3861 is on.
3862
3863 * Python API Improvements
3864
3865 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3866 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3867 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3868
3869 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3870 `is_base_class' attribute.
3871
3872 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3873
3874 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3875 evaluate an expression.
3876
3877 * New remote packets
3878
3879 QTDV
3880 Define a trace state variable.
3881
3882 qTV
3883 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3884
3885 QTDisconnected
3886 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3887
3888 QTBuffer:circular
3889 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3890
3891 qTfP, qTsP
3892 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3893
3894 * Bug fixes
3895
3896 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3897
3898 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3899 much more reliable. In particular:
3900 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3901 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3902 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3903 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3904 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3905 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3906 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3907 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3908 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3909 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3910 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3911 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3912 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3913 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3914 non-threaded programs.
3915
3916 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3917 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3918 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3919 executable program.
3920
3921 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
3922
3923 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3924 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3925 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3926 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3927 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3928
3929 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3930 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3931 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3932 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3933 for tracepoint actions.
3934
3935 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3936 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3937 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
3938
3939 * Process record and replay
3940
3941 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3942 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3943 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3944 execute commands.
3945
3946 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3947 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3948 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3949 reverse execution.
3950
3951 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3952 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3953 2.6.28 or later.
3954
3955 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3956 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3957 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3958 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3959 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3960 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3961 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3962 the installation instructions for more information.
3963
3964 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3965 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3966 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3967 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3968
3969 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3970 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3971
3972 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3973 now complete on file names.
3974
3975 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3976 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3977 For instance, consider:
3978
3979 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3980 # struct example variable;
3981 (gdb) p variable.
3982
3983 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3984 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3985
3986 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3987 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3988
3989 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3990 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3991 macros.
3992
3993 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3994 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3995 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3996
3997 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3998 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3999 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4000 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4001
4002 * New remote packets
4003
4004 qSearch:memory:
4005 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4006
4007 QStartNoAckMode
4008 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4009 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4010 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4011
4012 vKill
4013 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4014 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4015
4016 qXfer:osdata:read
4017 Obtains additional operating system information
4018
4019 qXfer:siginfo:read
4020 qXfer:siginfo:write
4021 Read or write additional signal information.
4022
4023 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4024
4025 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4026 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4027 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4028
4029 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4030 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4031
4032 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4033 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4034 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4035
4036 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4037 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4038
4039 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4040
4041 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4042
4043 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4044 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4045
4046 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
4047 list of section offsets.
4048
4049 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4050 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4051 have also been fixed.
4052
4053 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4054 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4055 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4056
4057 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4058 example, given:
4059
4060 template<typename T> class C { };
4061 C<char const *> c;
4062
4063 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4064
4065 ptype C<char const *>
4066 ptype C<char const*>
4067 ptype C<const char *>
4068 ptype C<const char*>
4069
4070 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4071
4072 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4073 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4074
4075 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4076 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4077 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4078
4079 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4080 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4081
4082 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4083 gdbserver.
4084
4085 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4086 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4087
4088 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4089 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4090 as appropriate.
4091
4092 * Python scripting
4093
4094 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4095 available is determined at configure time.
4096
4097 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4098
4099 * Ada tasking support
4100
4101 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4102 been introduced:
4103
4104 info tasks
4105 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4106 info task N
4107 Print detailed information about task number N.
4108 task
4109 Print the task number of the current task.
4110 task N
4111 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4112
4113 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4114 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4115
4116 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4117
4118 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4119 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4120 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4121 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4122 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4123 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4124 below.
4125
4126 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4127 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4128 information.
4129
4130 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4131 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4132 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4133 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4134 more information.
4135
4136 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4137
4138 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4139 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4140 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4141 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4142 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4143
4144 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4145 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4146 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4147 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4148 --enable-targets configure option.
4149
4150 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4151
4152 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4153 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4154 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4155 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4156 section in the user manual for more information.
4157
4158 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4159 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4160 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4161 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4162 extensions on linux targets.
4163
4164 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4165
4166 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4167 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4168 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4169 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4170 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4171 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4172 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4173 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4174 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4175
4176 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4177 val1 [, val2, ...]
4178 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4179
4180 maint set python print-stack
4181 maint show python print-stack
4182 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4183
4184 python [CODE]
4185 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4186
4187 macro define
4188 macro list
4189 macro undef
4190 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4191 interactively.
4192
4193 info os processes
4194 Show operating system information about processes.
4195
4196 info inferiors
4197 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4198
4199 inferior NUM
4200 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4201
4202 detach inferior NUM
4203 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4204
4205 kill inferior NUM
4206 Kill inferior number NUM.
4207
4208 * New options
4209
4210 set spu stop-on-load
4211 show spu stop-on-load
4212 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4213
4214 set spu auto-flush-cache
4215 show spu auto-flush-cache
4216 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4217 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4218
4219 set sh calling-convention
4220 show sh calling-convention
4221 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4222
4223 set debug timestamp
4224 show debug timestamp
4225 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4226
4227 set disassemble-next-line
4228 show disassemble-next-line
4229 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4230 the debuggee stops.
4231
4232 set remote noack-packet
4233 show remote noack-packet
4234 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4235 under "New remote packets."
4236
4237 set remote query-attached-packet
4238 show remote query-attached-packet
4239 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4240
4241 set remote read-siginfo-object
4242 show remote read-siginfo-object
4243 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4244 packet.
4245
4246 set remote write-siginfo-object
4247 show remote write-siginfo-object
4248 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4249 packet.
4250
4251 set remote reverse-continue
4252 show remote reverse-continue
4253 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4254
4255 set remote reverse-step
4256 show remote reverse-step
4257 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4258
4259 set displaced-stepping
4260 show displaced-stepping
4261 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4262 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4263 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4264
4265 set debug displaced
4266 show debug displaced
4267 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4268
4269 maint set internal-error
4270 maint show internal-error
4271 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4272
4273 maint set internal-warning
4274 maint show internal-warning
4275 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4276
4277 set exec-wrapper
4278 show exec-wrapper
4279 unset exec-wrapper
4280 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4281
4282 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4283 show multiple-symbols
4284 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4285 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4286 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4287
4288 set breakpoint always-inserted
4289 show breakpoint always-inserted
4290 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4291 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4292 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4293
4294 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4295 show arm fallback-mode
4296 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4297 show arm force-mode
4298 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4299 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4300 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4301 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4302
4303 set disable-randomization
4304 show disable-randomization
4305 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4306 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4307 multiple debugging sessions.
4308
4309 set non-stop
4310 show non-stop
4311 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4312 a breakpoint.
4313
4314 set target-async
4315 show target-async
4316 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4317 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4318 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4319 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4320
4321 set target-wide-charset
4322 show target-wide-charset
4323 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4324 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4325
4326 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4327 show tcp auto-retry
4328 set tcp connect-timeout
4329 show tcp connect-timeout
4330 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4331 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4332 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4333
4334 set libthread-db-search-path
4335 show libthread-db-search-path
4336 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4337 libthread_db.
4338
4339 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4340 show schedule-multiple
4341 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4342 the current process.
4343
4344 set stack-cache
4345 show stack-cache
4346 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4347 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4348 affecting correctness.
4349
4350 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4351 show interactive-mode
4352 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4353 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4354 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4355 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4356 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4357
4358 * Removed commands
4359
4360 info forks
4361 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4362 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4363 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4364 command.
4365
4366 fork NUM
4367 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4368 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4369 alias for the `fork' command.
4370
4371 process PID
4372 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4373 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4374 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4375
4376 delete fork NUM
4377 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4378 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4379 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4380 fork' command.
4381
4382 detach fork NUM
4383 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4384 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4385 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4386 fork' command.
4387
4388 * New native configurations
4389
4390 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4391
4392 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4393
4394 * New targets
4395
4396 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4397 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4398 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4399 S+core 3 score-*-*
4400
4401 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4402 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4403
4404 * Removed commands
4405
4406 catch load
4407 catch unload
4408 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4409
4410 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4411
4412 * New native configurations
4413
4414 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4415 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4416
4417 * New targets
4418
4419 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4420 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
4421
4422 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4423
4424 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4425 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4426 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4427 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4428
4429 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4430 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4431
4432 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4433 is resolved.
4434
4435 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4436 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4437 and in inlined functions.
4438
4439 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4440 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4441 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4442
4443 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4444
4445 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4446 registers on PowerPC targets.
4447
4448 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4449 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4450
4451 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4452 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4453
4454 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4455 extended-remote mode.
4456
4457 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4458 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4459 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4460 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4461
4462 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4463 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4464 target architectures.
4465
4466 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4467 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4468 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4469 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4470
4471 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4472 breakpoints now.
4473
4474 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4475 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4476 include:
4477 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4478 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4479 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4480 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4481 of an assignment
4482 - Improved command completion in Ada
4483 - Several bug fixes
4484
4485 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4486 process.
4487
4488 * New commands
4489
4490 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4491 show print frame-arguments
4492 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4493 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4494
4495 remote put
4496 remote get
4497 remote delete
4498 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4499
4500 * New MI commands
4501
4502 -target-file-put
4503 -target-file-get
4504 -target-file-delete
4505 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4506
4507 * New remote packets
4508
4509 vFile:open:
4510 vFile:close:
4511 vFile:pread:
4512 vFile:pwrite:
4513 vFile:unlink:
4514 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4515
4516 vAttach
4517 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4518 mode.
4519
4520 vRun
4521 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4522
4523 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4524
4525 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4526 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4527 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4528
4529 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4530 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4531 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4532
4533 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4534 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4535 is not supported.
4536
4537 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4538 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4539
4540 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4541 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4542
4543 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4544
4545 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4546 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4547 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4548
4549 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4550 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4551
4552 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4553 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4554 as strings.
4555
4556 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4557 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4558 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4559
4560 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4561 iWMMXt coprocessor.
4562
4563 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4564 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4565 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4566
4567 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4568
4569 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4570
4571 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4572 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4573 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4574
4575 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4576 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4577
4578 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4579 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4580 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4581 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4582 Windows and SymbianOS).
4583
4584 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4585 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4586
4587 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4588 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4589
4590 * New commands
4591
4592 set remoteflow
4593 show remoteflow
4594 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4595 when debugging using remote targets.
4596
4597 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4598 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4599 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4600 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4601 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4602 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4603 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4604
4605 set breakpoint auto-hw
4606 show breakpoint auto-hw
4607 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4608 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4609 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4610 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4611 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4612 including "next" and "finish".
4613
4614 catch exception
4615 catch exception unhandled
4616 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4617
4618 catch assert
4619 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4620
4621 set sysroot
4622 show sysroot
4623 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4624 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4625 an alias to "set sysroot".
4626
4627 info spu
4628 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4629 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4630 architecture.
4631
4632 * New native configurations
4633
4634 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4635
4636 set tdesc filename
4637 unset tdesc filename
4638 show tdesc filename
4639 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4640 not query the target for its built-in description.
4641
4642 * New targets
4643
4644 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4645 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4646 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4647
4648 * New remote packets
4649
4650 QPassSignals:
4651 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4652 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4653
4654 qXfer:features:read:
4655 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4656 features.
4657
4658 qXfer:spu:read:
4659 qXfer:spu:write:
4660 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4661 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4662
4663 qXfer:libraries:read:
4664 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4665 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4666 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4667 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4668
4669 * Removed targets
4670
4671 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4672
4673 alpha*-*-osf1*
4674 alpha*-*-osf2*
4675 d10v-*-*
4676 hppa*-*-hiux*
4677 i[34567]86-ncr-*
4678 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4679 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4680 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4681 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4682 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4683 i[34567]86-*-sco*
4684 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4685 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4686 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4687 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4688 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4689 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4690 i[34567]86-*-isc*
4691 m68*-cisco*-*
4692 m68*-tandem-*
4693 mips*-*-pe
4694 rs6000-*-lynxos*
4695 sh*-*-pe
4696
4697 * Other removed features
4698
4699 target abug
4700 target cpu32bug
4701 target est
4702 target rom68k
4703
4704 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4705
4706 target hms
4707 target e7000
4708 target sh3
4709 target sh3e
4710
4711 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4712 H8/300.
4713
4714 target ocd
4715
4716 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4717 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4718 interfaces.
4719
4720 DWARF 1 support
4721
4722 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4723 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4724
4725 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4726
4727 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4728 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4729 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4730 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4731
4732 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4733
4734 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4735 in debugging information.
4736
4737 Scheme support
4738
4739 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4740 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4741
4742 set mips stack-arg-size
4743 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4744
4745 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4746
4747 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4748
4749 * New targets
4750
4751 Xtensa xtensa-elf
4752 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4753
4754 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4755 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4756 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4757
4758 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4759 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4760 supported.
4761
4762 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4763 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4764
4765 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4766 stub provides the required support.
4767
4768 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4769 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4770
4771 * New commands
4772
4773 set substitute-path
4774 unset substitute-path
4775 show substitute-path
4776 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4777 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4778 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4779 between compilation and debugging.
4780
4781 set trace-commands
4782 show trace-commands
4783 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4784 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4785 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4786
4787 * REMOVED features
4788
4789 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4790
4791 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4792 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4793
4794 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4795
4796 * New remote packets
4797
4798 qSupported:
4799 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4800 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4801 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4802 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4803 target.
4804
4805 qXfer:auxv:read:
4806 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4807 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4808
4809 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4810 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4811 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4812
4813 vFlashErase:
4814 vFlashWrite:
4815 vFlashDone:
4816 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4817
4818 * Removed remote packets
4819
4820 qPart:auxv:read:
4821 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4822 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4823
4824 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4825
4826 * New targets
4827
4828 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4829
4830 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4831
4832 * New commands
4833
4834 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4835 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4836
4837 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4838
4839 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4840
4841 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4842 previously saved state.
4843
4844 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4845
4846 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4847
4848 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4849 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4850
4851 info forks List forks of the user program that
4852 are available to be debugged.
4853
4854 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4855 forks of the user program that are
4856 available to be debugged.
4857
4858 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4859 that are available to be debugged (and
4860 kill the forked process).
4861
4862 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4863 that are available to be debugged (and
4864 allow the process to continue).
4865
4866 * New architecture
4867
4868 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4869
4870 * Improved Windows host support
4871
4872 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4873 native console support, and remote communications using either
4874 network sockets or serial ports.
4875
4876 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4877
4878 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4879 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4880 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4881 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4882 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4883 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4884
4885 * REMOVED features
4886
4887 The ARM rdi-share module.
4888
4889 The Netware NLM debug server.
4890
4891 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4892
4893 * New native configurations
4894
4895 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4896 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4897
4898 * New targets
4899
4900 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4901
4902 * New command line options
4903
4904 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4905 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4906 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4907 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4908 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4909 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4910 with the --command (-x) option.
4911
4912 * Deprecated commands removed
4913
4914 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4915 removed:
4916
4917 Command Replacement
4918 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4919 othernames set arm disassembler
4920 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4921 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4922 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4923 regs info registers
4924
4925 * New BSD user-level threads support
4926
4927 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4928 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4929 configurations are:
4930
4931 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4932 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4933 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4934
4935 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4936 are not yet supported.
4937
4938 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4939 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4940
4941 * REMOVED configurations and files
4942
4943 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4944 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4945 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4946
4947 * New "set print array-indexes" command
4948
4949 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4950 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4951 behavior.
4952
4953 * VAX floating point support
4954
4955 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4956
4957 * User-defined command support
4958
4959 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4960 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4961 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4962
4963 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4964
4965 * New command line option
4966
4967 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4968 debugging.
4969
4970 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4971
4972 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4973 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4974 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4975 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4976 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4977
4978 * Internationalization
4979
4980 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4981 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4982 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4983
4984 * Ada
4985
4986 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4987 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4988 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4989
4990 * New native configurations
4991
4992 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4993
4994 * Remote 'p' packet
4995
4996 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4997 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4998
4999 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5000
5001 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5002 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5003 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5004 i386 application).
5005
5006 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
5007 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5008 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5009 configurations:
5010
5011 hppa-*-hpux
5012 ia64-*-aix
5013 mips-*-irix*
5014 *-*-lynx
5015 mips-*-linux-gnu
5016 sds protocol
5017 xdr protocol
5018 powerpc bdm protocol
5019
5020 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5021 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5022
5023 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5024
5025 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5026 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5027 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5028 permanently REMOVED.
5029
5030 h8300-*-*
5031 mcore-*-*
5032 mn10300-*-*
5033 ns32k-*-*
5034 sh64-*-*
5035 v850-*-*
5036
5037 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5038
5039 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5040
5041 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5042 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5043 been fixed.
5044
5045 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5046
5047 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5048 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5049 IRIX long double values).
5050
5051 * VAX and "next"
5052
5053 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5054 command. This problem has been fixed.
5055
5056 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5057
5058 * Fix for ``many threads''
5059
5060 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5061 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5062 error message:
5063
5064 ptrace: No such process.
5065 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5066
5067 This problem has been fixed.
5068
5069 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5070
5071 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5072 GDB to dump core).
5073
5074 * New ``start'' command.
5075
5076 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
5077
5078 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5079
5080 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5081 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5082 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5083
5084 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5085 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5086 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5087 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5088 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5089 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5090 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5091 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5092 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5093
5094 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5095
5096 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5097 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5098 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5099 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5100 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5101
5102 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5103 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5104 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5105
5106 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5107
5108 * New native configurations
5109
5110 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5111 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5112 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5113 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5114 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5115 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5116 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5117
5118 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5119
5120 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5121 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5122 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5123 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5124 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5125 work, was also included.
5126
5127 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5128 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5129
5130 h8300-*-*
5131 mcore-*-*
5132 mn10300-*-*
5133 ns32k-*-*
5134 sh64-*-*
5135 v850-*-*
5136 xstormy16-*-*
5137
5138 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5139 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5140
5141 * REMOVED configurations and files
5142
5143 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5144 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5145 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5146 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5147 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5148 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5149 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5150 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5151 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5152 sonymips mips-sony-*
5153 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5154
5155 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5156
5157 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5158
5159 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5160 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5161 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5162 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5163 with GDB".
5164
5165 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5166
5167 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5168 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5169 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5170 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5171 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5172 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5173 are created.
5174
5175 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5176
5177 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5178
5179 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5180 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5181 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5182
5183 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5184
5185 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5186 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5187
5188 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5189
5190 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5191 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5192 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5193
5194 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5195
5196 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5197 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5198
5199 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5200
5201 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5202 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5203 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5204
5205 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5206
5207 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5208 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5209 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5210
5211 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5212
5213 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5214
5215 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5216 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5217
5218 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5219
5220 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5221 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5222 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5223 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5224
5225 * Revised SPARC target
5226
5227 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5228 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5229 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5230 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5231 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5232
5233 * New C++ demangler
5234
5235 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5236 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5237 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5238 programs.
5239
5240 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5241
5242 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5243 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5244 encountered these.
5245
5246 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5247
5248 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5249 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5250 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5251 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5252 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5253 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5254 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5255 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5256 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5257
5258 * New native configurations
5259
5260 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5261 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5262 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5263 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5264 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5265
5266 * New debugging protocols
5267
5268 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5269
5270 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5271
5272 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5273 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5274 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5275
5276 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5277
5278 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5279 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5280 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5281 permanently REMOVED.
5282
5283 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5284 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5285 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5286 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5287 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5288 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5289 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5290 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5291 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5292 sonymips mips-sony-*
5293 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5294
5295 * REMOVED configurations and files
5296
5297 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5298 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5299 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5300 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5301 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5302 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5303 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5304 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5305 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5306 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5307 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5308 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5309 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5310 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5311 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5312 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5313 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5314
5315 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5316
5317 * Objective-C
5318
5319 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5320 integrated into GDB.
5321
5322 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5323
5324 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5325 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5326 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5327 backtraces.
5328
5329 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5330 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5331 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5332
5333 * Hosted file I/O.
5334
5335 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5336 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5337 remote protocol documentation for details.
5338
5339 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5340
5341 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5342 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5343 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5344 ppc32 on ppc64).
5345
5346 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5347
5348 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5349 per-thread variables.
5350
5351 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5352
5353 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5354 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5355
5356 * Separate debug info.
5357
5358 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5359 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5360 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5361 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5362 and optional debug files.
5363
5364 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5365
5366 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5367 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5368 debugger.
5369
5370 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5371 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5372
5373 * Java
5374
5375 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5376 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5377 considered "useable".
5378
5379 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5380
5381 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5382 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5383 kernel.
5384
5385 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5386
5387 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5388 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5389
5390 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5391
5392 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5393 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5394 command.
5395
5396 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5397
5398 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5399 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5400
5401 * Profiling support
5402
5403 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5404 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5405 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5406 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5407 data, for more informative profiling results.
5408
5409 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5410
5411 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5412 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5413 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5414
5415 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5416 removed.
5417
5418 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5419 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5420 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5421 in a subsequent -var-update.
5422
5423 * New native configurations.
5424
5425 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5426
5427 * Multi-arched targets.
5428
5429 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5430 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5431
5432 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5433
5434 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5435 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5436 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5437 permanently REMOVED.
5438
5439 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5440 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5441 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5442 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5443 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5444 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5445 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5446 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5447 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5448 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5449 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5450 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5451
5452 * REMOVED configurations and files
5453
5454 V850EA ISA
5455 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5456 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5457 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5458 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5459 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5460 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5461 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5462 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5463 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5464 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5465 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5466 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5467 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5468
5469 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5470
5471 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5472 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5473 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5474 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5475 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5476
5477 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5478
5479 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5480
5481 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5482 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5483 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5484 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5485 shared libs like mad''.
5486
5487 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5488
5489 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5490 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5491 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5492 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5493
5494 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5495
5496 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5497 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5498 they expand.
5499
5500 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5501 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5502
5503 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5504 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5505
5506 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5507 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5508 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5509 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5510
5511 * Multi-arched targets.
5512
5513 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5514 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5515 NEC V850 v850-*-*
5516 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5517 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5518 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5519
5520 * New targets.
5521
5522 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5523
5524
5525 * New native configurations
5526
5527 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5528 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5529 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5530 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5531
5532 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5533
5534 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5535 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5536 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5537 permanently REMOVED.
5538
5539 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5540 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5541 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5542 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5543 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5544 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5545 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5546 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5547 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5548 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5549 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5550 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5551 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5552
5553 * OBSOLETE languages
5554
5555 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5556
5557 * REMOVED configurations and files
5558
5559 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5560 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5561 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5562 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5563 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5564
5565 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5566
5567 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5568
5569 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5570 commands. The default is 1024.
5571
5572 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5573
5574 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5575
5576 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5577
5578 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5579 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5580 from a file into memory (restore).
5581
5582 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5583
5584 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5585 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5586 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5587
5588 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5589
5590 * New targets.
5591
5592 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5593
5594 * Bug fixes
5595
5596 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5597 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5598 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5599
5600 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5601 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5602 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5603
5604 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5605 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5606 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5607
5608 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5609 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5610 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5611
5612 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5613
5614 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5615
5616 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5617 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5618 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5619 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5620 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5621 (notably embedded) targets.
5622
5623 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5624
5625 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5626 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5627 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5628 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5629
5630 * New command line option
5631
5632 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5633
5634 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5635
5636 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5637 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5638 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5639 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5640 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5641 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5642 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5643 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5644 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5645 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5646
5647 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5648
5649 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5650 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5651
5652 * New native configurations
5653
5654 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5655 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5656 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5657 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5658
5659 * New targets
5660
5661 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5662
5663 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5664
5665 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5666 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5667 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5668 permanently REMOVED.
5669
5670 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5671 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5672 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5673 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5674 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5675
5676 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5677
5678 * REMOVED configurations and files
5679
5680 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5681 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5682 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5683 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5684 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5685 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5686 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5687 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5688 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5689 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5690 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5691 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5692 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5693
5694 * Changes to command line processing
5695
5696 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5697 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5698
5699 * Changes to key bindings
5700
5701 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5702
5703 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5704
5705 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5706
5707 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5708 corrupted.
5709
5710 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5711
5712 Numerous documentation fixes.
5713
5714 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5715
5716 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5717
5718 * New native configurations
5719
5720 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5721 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5722 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5723 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5724 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5725 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5726
5727 * New targets
5728
5729 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5730 CRIS cris-axis
5731 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5732
5733 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5734
5735 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5736 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5737 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5738 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5739 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5740 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5741 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5742 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5743 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5744 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5745 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5746 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5747 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5748 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5749
5750 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5751 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5752
5753 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5754 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5755 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5756 permanently REMOVED.
5757
5758 * REMOVED configurations and files
5759
5760 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5761 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5762 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5763 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5764 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5765 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5766
5767 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5768
5769 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5770 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5771 present.
5772
5773 * Other news:
5774
5775 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5776
5777 * The MI enabled by default.
5778
5779 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5780 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5781 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5782 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5783 which is now deprecated.
5784
5785 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5786
5787 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5788 main features are supported:
5789
5790 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5791
5792 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5793 extension;
5794
5795 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5796
5797 - a Pascal expression parser.
5798
5799 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5800
5801 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5802
5803 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5804
5805 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5806 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5807
5808 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5809
5810 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5811
5812 * Changes in completion.
5813
5814 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5815 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5816 users expect at the shell prompt.
5817
5818 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5819 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5820 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5821 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5822 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5823 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5824 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5825
5826 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5827
5828 * New platform-independent commands:
5829
5830 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5831 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5832 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5833
5834 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5835
5836 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5837 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5838 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5839
5840 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5841
5842 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5843 multi-threaded programs though.
5844
5845 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5846
5847 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5848
5849 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5850 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5851 supported.)
5852
5853 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5854
5855 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5856 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5857 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5858 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5859 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5860 registers.
5861
5862 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5863 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5864 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5865
5866 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5867
5868 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5869 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5870
5871 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5872 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5873 IDT.
5874
5875 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5876 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5877 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5878 a given linear address.
5879
5880 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5881 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5882 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5883
5884 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5885
5886 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5887
5888 * Changes in documentation.
5889
5890 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5891 Documentation License.
5892
5893 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5894 manual.
5895
5896 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5897
5898 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5899 manual.
5900
5901 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5902 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5903 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5904
5905 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5906
5907 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5908 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5909 contents of this file.
5910
5911 * gdba.el deleted
5912
5913 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5914
5915 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5916
5917 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5918
5919 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5920 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5921 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5922 greater level of detail.
5923
5924 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5925
5926 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5927 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5928 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5929 written.
5930
5931 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5932
5933 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5934 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5935 machines ``out of the box''.
5936
5937 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5938 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5939 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5940 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5941 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5942
5943 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5944 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5945 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5946 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5947 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5948
5949 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5950 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5951 also works.
5952
5953 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5954 GDB.
5955
5956 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5957 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5958 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5959 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5960
5961 * New native configurations
5962
5963 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5964 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5965
5966 * New targets
5967
5968 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5969 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5970 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5971 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5972
5973 * OBSOLETE configurations
5974
5975 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5976 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5977 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5978 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5979 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5980
5981 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5982 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5983 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5984 be permanently REMOVED.
5985
5986 * Gould support removed
5987
5988 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5989
5990 * New features for SVR4
5991
5992 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5993 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5994 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5995
5996 * Many C++ enhancements
5997
5998 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5999 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6000
6001 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6002
6003 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6004 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6005 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6006 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6007
6008 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6009 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6010
6011 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6012
6013 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6014 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6015 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6016
6017 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6018 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6019
6020 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6021
6022 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6023 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6024 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6025
6026 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6027
6028 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6029 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6030 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6031
6032 * ``apropos'' command added.
6033
6034 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6035 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6036 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6037
6038 * New MI interface
6039
6040 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6041 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6042 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6043 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6044 enabled by configuring with:
6045
6046 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6047
6048 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6049
6050 * New native configurations
6051
6052 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6053 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6054 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6055
6056 * New targets
6057
6058 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6059 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6060 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6061
6062 * OBSOLETE configurations
6063
6064 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6065
6066 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6067 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6068 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6069 be permanently REMOVED.
6070
6071 * ANSI/ISO C
6072
6073 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6074 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6075 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6076 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6077 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6078 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6079 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6080 already.
6081
6082 * Readline 2.2
6083
6084 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6085
6086 * set extension-language
6087
6088 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6089 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6090 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6091 set extension-language .c c++
6092 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6093 and their associated languages.
6094
6095 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6096
6097 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6098 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6099 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6100
6101 set processor NAME
6102
6103 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6104 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6105
6106 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6107 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6108 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6109 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6110 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6111 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6112 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6113 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6114 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6115 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6116 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6117
6118 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6119 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6120 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6121 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6122
6123 * HP-UX support
6124
6125 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6126 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6127 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6128 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6129 for xdb and dbx commands.
6130
6131 * Catchpoints
6132
6133 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6134 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6135 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6136
6137 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6138 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6139 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6140
6141 * Debugging across forks
6142
6143 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6144 in the inferior.
6145
6146 * TUI
6147
6148 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6149 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6150 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6151
6152 * GDB remote protocol additions
6153
6154 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6155 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6156 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6157 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6158
6159 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6160 full 64-bit address. The command
6161
6162 set remoteaddresssize 32
6163
6164 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6165 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6166 will be discarded.
6167
6168 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6169 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6170
6171 maint packet heythere
6172
6173 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6174 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6175 time.
6176
6177 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6178 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6179 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6180
6181 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6182
6183 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6184 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6185 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6186
6187 * mask-address variable for Mips
6188
6189 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6190 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6191 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6192
6193 * Higher serial baud rates
6194
6195 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6196 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6197 to achieve all of these rates.)
6198
6199 * i960 simulator
6200
6201 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6202 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6203
6204
6205 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6206
6207 * New native configurations
6208
6209 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6210 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6211 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6212 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6213 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6214 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6215 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6216
6217 * New targets
6218
6219 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6220 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6221 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6222 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6223 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6224 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6225 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6226 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6227 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6228 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6229 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6230
6231 * New debugging protocols
6232
6233 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6234 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6235 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6236 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6237 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6238 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6239
6240 * DWARF 2
6241
6242 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6243 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6244 information.
6245
6246 * Java frontend
6247
6248 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6249 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6250
6251 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6252
6253 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6254 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6255 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6256
6257 * Live range splitting
6258
6259 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6260 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6261 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6262
6263 * Hurd support
6264
6265 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6266 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6267
6268 * ARM Thumb support
6269
6270 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6271 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6272 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6273 accordingly.
6274
6275 * MIPS16 support
6276
6277 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6278 instruction set.
6279
6280 * Overlay support
6281
6282 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6283 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6284 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6285 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6286 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6287 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6288
6289 * info symbol
6290
6291 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6292 the symbol at the specified address.
6293
6294 * Trace support
6295
6296 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6297 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6298 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6299 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6300 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6301
6302 * MIPS simulator
6303
6304 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6305 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6306 of most MIPS variants.
6307
6308 * Sparc simulator
6309
6310 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6311 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6312 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6313
6314 * set architecture
6315
6316 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6317 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6318 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6319 the possible architectures.
6320
6321 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6322
6323 * New native configurations
6324
6325 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6326 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6327 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6328 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6329 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6330 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6331
6332 * New targets
6333
6334 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6335 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6336 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6337 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6338 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6339 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
6340 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6341
6342 * PowerPC simulator
6343
6344 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6345 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6346 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6347 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6348 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6349
6350 * Solaris 2.5
6351
6352 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6353
6354 * Windows 95/NT native
6355
6356 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6357 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6358 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6359 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6360 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6361
6362 * dont-repeat command
6363
6364 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6365 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6366 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6367 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6368
6369 * Send break instead of ^C
6370
6371 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6372 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6373 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6374
6375 * Remote protocol timeout
6376
6377 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6378 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6379 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6380
6381 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6382
6383 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6384 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6385 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6386 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6387 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6388
6389 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6390 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6391 automatically on hpux10.
6392
6393 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6394
6395 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6396
6397 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6398
6399 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6400 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6401 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6402 every character. The default value is 1050.
6403
6404 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6405
6406 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6407 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6408 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6409 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6410 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6411 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6412
6413 * Speedups for remote debugging
6414
6415 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6416 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6417 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6418
6419 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6420
6421 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6422 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6423
6424 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6425
6426 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6427
6428 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6429 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6430
6431 * Remote targets use caching
6432
6433 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6434 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6435 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6436 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6437 off' turns the the data cache off.
6438
6439 * Remote targets may have threads
6440
6441 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6442 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6443 gdb/remote.c for details.
6444
6445 * NetROM support
6446
6447 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6448 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6449 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6450 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6451 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6452 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6453 sequence is something like
6454
6455 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6456 load <prog>
6457 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6458
6459 * Macintosh host
6460
6461 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6462 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6463 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6464 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6465 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6466 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6467 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6468 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6469
6470 * Autoconf
6471
6472 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6473 but does simplify configuration and building.
6474
6475 * hpux10
6476
6477 GDB now supports hpux10.
6478
6479 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6480
6481 * New native configurations
6482
6483 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6484 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6485 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6486 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6487
6488 * New targets
6489
6490 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6491 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6492 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6493 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6494 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6495
6496 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6497
6498 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6499 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6500 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6501 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6502 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6503
6504 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6505
6506 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6507 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6508 trivial example:
6509 define adder
6510 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6511
6512 To execute the command use:
6513 adder 1 2 3
6514
6515 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6516 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6517 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6518
6519 * New `if' and `while' commands
6520
6521 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6522 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6523 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6524 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6525 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6526 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6527 if the expression is zero.
6528
6529 * Fortran source language mode
6530
6531 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6532 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6533 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6534 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6535 Fortran compilers.
6536
6537 * Better HPUX support
6538
6539 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6540 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6541 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6542 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6543 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6544
6545 adb -w a.out
6546 __dld_flags?W 0x5
6547 control-d
6548
6549 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6550 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6551
6552 adb -w a.out
6553 __dld_flags?W 0x4
6554 control-d
6555
6556 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6557 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6558 external linkage.
6559
6560 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6561 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6562
6563 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6564
6565 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6566 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6567 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6568 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6569 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6570 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6571
6572 * New DOS host serial code
6573
6574 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6575 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6576 a PC's serial port.
6577
6578 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6579
6580 * New "complete" command
6581
6582 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6583 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6584
6585 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6586
6587 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6588 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6589
6590 * Breakpoint hit counts
6591
6592 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6593 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6594 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6595 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6596 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6597 that breakpoint.
6598
6599 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6600
6601 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6602 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6603 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6604
6605 * Shared library breakpoints
6606
6607 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6608 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6609
6610 * Hardware watchpoints
6611
6612 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6613 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6614
6615 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6616
6617 * Annotations
6618
6619 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6620 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6621
6622 * Improved Irix 5 support
6623
6624 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6625
6626 * Improved HPPA support
6627
6628 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6629
6630 * New native configurations
6631
6632 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6633 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6634 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6635 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6636
6637 * New targets
6638
6639 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6640 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6641 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6642
6643 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6644
6645 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6646 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6647
6648 * Fixes
6649
6650 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6651 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6652
6653 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6654
6655 * Irix 5 is now supported
6656
6657 * HPPA support
6658
6659 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6660 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6661 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6662 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6663 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6664
6665
6666 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6667
6668 * User visible changes:
6669
6670 * Remote Debugging
6671
6672 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6673 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6674 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6675 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6676 debugging info for the mips target).
6677
6678 * DEC Alpha native support
6679
6680 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6681 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6682 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6683 Alpha-specific notes.
6684
6685 * Preliminary thread implementation
6686
6687 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6688
6689 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6690
6691 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6692 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6693 for details).
6694
6695 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6696
6697 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6698 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6699 call methods, ...etc.
6700
6701 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6702
6703 * User visible changes:
6704
6705 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6706 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6707 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6708 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6709
6710 Filename completion now works.
6711
6712 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6713 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6714 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6715
6716 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6717 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6718 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6719 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6720 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6721
6722 * DEC alpha support
6723
6724 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6725 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6726
6727
6728 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6729
6730 * Testsuite
6731
6732 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6733 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6734 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6735
6736 * C++ demangling
6737
6738 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6739 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6740 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6741 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6742 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6743
6744 * Simulators
6745
6746 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6747 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6748 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6749
6750 * New targets supported
6751
6752 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6753 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6754 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6755 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6756 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6757
6758 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6759 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6760 GO32 memory extender.
6761
6762 * New remote protocols
6763
6764 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6765
6766 * New source languages supported
6767
6768 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6769 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6770 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6771
6772
6773 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6774
6775 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6776
6777 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6778 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6779 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6780 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6781 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6782 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6783
6784 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6785
6786 * Faster and better demangling
6787
6788 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6789 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6790 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6791 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6792 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6793 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6794 symbol lookups.
6795
6796 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6797 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6798 compiler does not actually implement.
6799
6800 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6801
6802 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6803 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6804 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6805 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6806 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6807 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6808 fix.
6809
6810 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6811 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6812
6813 * Improved configure script
6814
6815 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6816 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6817 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6818 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6819
6820 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6821 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6822 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6823 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6824 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6825 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6826
6827 * Documentation improvements
6828
6829 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6830 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6831 before submitting changes.
6832
6833 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6834 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6835 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6836 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6837 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6838
6839 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6840 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6841 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6842 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6843 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6844 around this problem.
6845
6846 * New features
6847
6848 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6849 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6850 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6851 the target program.
6852
6853 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6854 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6855
6856 * New native hosts supported
6857
6858 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6859 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6860
6861 * New targets supported
6862
6863 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6864
6865 * New file formats supported
6866
6867 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6868 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6869
6870 * Major bug fixes
6871
6872 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6873
6874 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6875 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6876
6877 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6878 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6879 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6880
6881 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6882 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6883
6884 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6885 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6886 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6887 libraries.
6888
6889 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6890 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6891 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6892 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6893 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6894
6895 * Internal improvements
6896
6897 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6898 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6899
6900 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6901 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6902 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6903 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6904 shared code that handles any of them.
6905
6906 * New command line options
6907
6908 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6909
6910 * Mmalloc licensing
6911
6912 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6913 General Public License.
6914
6915 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6916
6917 * Host/native/target split
6918
6919 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6920 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6921 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6922 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6923 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6924
6925 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6926 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6927 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6928 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6929 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6930 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6931 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6932
6933 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6934 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6935 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6936
6937 * New hosts supported
6938
6939 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6940 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6941 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6942
6943 * New targets supported
6944
6945 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6946 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6947
6948 * New native hosts supported
6949
6950 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6951 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6952 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6953
6954 * New file formats supported
6955
6956 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6957 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6958 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6959
6960 * New commands
6961
6962 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6963 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6964 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6965
6966 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6967
6968 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6969 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6970 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6971 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6972
6973 * C++ improvements
6974
6975 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6976 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6977 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6978
6979 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6980
6981 * Major bug fixes
6982
6983 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6984 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6985 by the compiler.
6986
6987 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6988 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6989
6990 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6991 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6992 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6993 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6994 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6995 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6996
6997 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6998 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6999 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7000 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7001
7002 * AMD 29k support
7003
7004 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7005 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7006 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7007 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7008 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7009
7010 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7011 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7012 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7013 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7014
7015 * Remote interfaces
7016
7017 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7018 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7019 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7020 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7021 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7022 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7023 each instruction being stepped through.
7024
7025 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7026 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7027
7028 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7029 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7030 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7031 processor with a serial port.
7032
7033 * Configuration
7034
7035 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7036 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7037 supported, and what files each one uses.
7038
7039 * Library changes
7040
7041 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7042 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7043 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7044 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7045
7046 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7047 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7048 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7049 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7050
7051 * Documentation
7052
7053 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7054 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7055 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7056 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7057 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7058 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7059
7060 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7061
7062
7063 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7064
7065 * Better support for C++ function names
7066
7067 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7068 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7069 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7070 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7071 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7072
7073 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7074 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7075 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7076 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7077 for the list of formats.
7078
7079 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7080
7081 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7082 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7083 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7084 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
7085 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7086 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7087 this problem.)
7088
7089 * New 'maintenance' command
7090
7091 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7092 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7093 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7094
7095 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7096 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7097 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7098 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7099 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7100 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7101
7102 The following commands are new:
7103
7104 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7105 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7106 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7107
7108 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7109
7110 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7111 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7112 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7113 read after argv processing.
7114
7115 * New hosts supported
7116
7117 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7118
7119 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7120
7121 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7122 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7123 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7124 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7125 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7126 It costs extra.
7127
7128 * New targets supported
7129
7130 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7131
7132 * More smarts about finding #include files
7133
7134 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7135 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7136 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7137 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7138 the one that contains your sources.
7139
7140 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7141 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7142 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7143
7144 * Interesting infernals change
7145
7146 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7147 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7148 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7149 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7150
7151 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7152
7153 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7154 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7155 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7156
7157 See the ChangeLog for details.
7158
7159 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7160
7161 * New machines supported (host and target)
7162
7163 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7164
7165 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7166
7167 * New malloc package
7168
7169 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7170 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
7171 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7172 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7173 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7174 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7175
7176 * info proc
7177
7178 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7179 'help info proc' for details.
7180
7181 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7182
7183 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7184 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7185 possible.
7186
7187 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7188
7189 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7190 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7191 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7192 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7193 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7194 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7195
7196 * Cross byte order fixes
7197
7198 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7199 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7200
7201 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7202
7203 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7204 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7205 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7206 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7207 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7208 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7209 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7210 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7211 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7212 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7213
7214 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7215 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7216 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7217 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7218
7219 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7220 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7221 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7222 use is:
7223
7224 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7225
7226 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7227 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7228 shared across multiple host platforms.
7229
7230 * longjmp() handling
7231
7232 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7233 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7234 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7235 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7236
7237 * Solaris 2.0
7238
7239 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7240 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7241 reading symbols.
7242
7243 * Bug fixes
7244
7245 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7246 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7247 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7248
7249 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7250
7251 * New machines supported (host and target)
7252
7253 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7254 (except core files)
7255 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7256 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7257
7258 * New machines supported (target)
7259
7260 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7261
7262 * C++ support
7263
7264 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7265 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7266 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7267
7268 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7269 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7270 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7271 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7272 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7273 released.
7274
7275 * New features for SVR4
7276
7277 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7278 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7279 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7280
7281 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7282 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7283 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7284
7285 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7286 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7287
7288 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7289
7290 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7291 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7292 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7293 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7294 same code linked statically.
7295
7296 * New Getopt
7297
7298 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7299 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7300 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7301 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7302 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7303 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7304
7305 * Bugs fixed
7306
7307 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7308 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7309 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7310
7311
7312 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7313
7314 * New machines supported (host and target)
7315
7316 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7317 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7318 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7319
7320 * Almost SCO Unix support
7321
7322 We had hoped to support:
7323 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7324 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7325 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7326 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7327
7328 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7329
7330 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7331 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7332 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7333 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7334 reqired (if any).
7335
7336 * New Readline
7337
7338 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7339 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7340 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7341
7342 * Bugs fixed
7343
7344 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7345 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7346 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7347
7348 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7349
7350 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7351 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7352 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7353
7354 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7355 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7356 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7357 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7358 version 2.
7359
7360 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7361 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7362 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7363 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7364 situation somewhat.
7365
7366 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7367 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7368 methods.
7369
7370 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7371 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7372 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7373
7374
7375 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7376
7377 * Improved configuration
7378
7379 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7380 Porting BFD is simpler.
7381
7382 * Stepping improved
7383
7384 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7385 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7386 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7387 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7388
7389 * Bug fixing
7390
7391 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7392
7393 * New host supported (not target)
7394
7395 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7396
7397
7398 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7399
7400 * Multiple source language support
7401
7402 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7403 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7404 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7405 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7406 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7407 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7408
7409 * GDB and Modula-2
7410
7411 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7412 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7413 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7414 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7415
7416 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7417 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7418 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7419
7420 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7421 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7422
7423 * set write on/off
7424
7425 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7426 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7427 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7428 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7429 effect immediately.
7430
7431 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7432
7433 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7434 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7435 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7436 examining core files.
7437
7438 * set listsize
7439
7440 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7441 The default is 10.
7442
7443 * New machines supported (host and target)
7444
7445 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7446 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7447 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7448
7449 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7450
7451 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7452
7453 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7454
7455 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7456 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7457 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7458
7459 * New remote interfaces
7460
7461 AMD 29000 Adapt
7462 AMD 29000 Minimon
7463
7464
7465 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7466
7467 * New Facilities
7468
7469 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7470
7471 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7472 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7473 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7474 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7475 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7476 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7477 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7478 stub on the target system.
7479
7480 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7481
7482 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7483 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7484 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7485
7486 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7487 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7488
7489
7490 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7491
7492 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7493 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7494
7495 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7496 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7497 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7498
7499 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7500 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7501 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7502 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7503
7504 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7505 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7506 it is already running. Default is ON.
7507
7508 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7509 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7510 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7511 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7512 Default is ON.
7513
7514 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7515 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7516 or the value of the environment variable
7517 GDBHISTFILE.
7518
7519 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7520 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7521 HISTSIZE.
7522
7523 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7524 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7525 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7526
7527 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7528 history expansion will be performed on
7529 command line input. The default is OFF.
7530
7531 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7532 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7533 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7534
7535 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7536 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7537 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7538 variable TERM.
7539
7540 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7541 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7542 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7543 variable TERM.
7544
7545 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7546 ``set width'' instead.
7547
7548 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7549 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7550 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7551 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7552
7553 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7554 is OFF.
7555
7556 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7557 "raw" form if off.
7558
7559 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7560 like instructions.
7561
7562 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7563
7564
7565 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7566
7567 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7568 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7569 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7570 window.
7571
7572
7573 * Support for Shared Libraries
7574
7575 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7576 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7577 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7578 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7579 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7580 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7581 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7582 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7583
7584 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7585 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7586 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7587
7588 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7589
7590
7591 * Watchpoints
7592
7593 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7594 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7595 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7596 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7597 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7598 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7599
7600 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7601
7602 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7603
7604 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7605 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7606 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7607
7608
7609 * C++ multiple inheritance
7610
7611 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7612 for C++ programs.
7613
7614 * C++ exception handling
7615
7616 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7617 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7618 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7619 handler's context).
7620
7621 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7622 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7623 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7624
7625 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7626 current stack frame.
7627
7628
7629 * Minor command changes
7630
7631 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7632 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7633 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7634
7635 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7636 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7637 frames without printing.
7638
7639 * New directory command
7640
7641 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7642 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7643 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7644 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7645 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7646
7647 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7648
7649 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7650 for more details.
7651
7652 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7653 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7654 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7655 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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