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