Fix a typo in gdb/windows-tdep.c
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 9
5
6 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
7 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
8 performance for programs with many symbols.
9
10 *** Changes in GDB 9
11
12 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
13
14 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
15 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
16 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
17 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
18 such as in system-wide init files.
19
20 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
21 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
22 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
23 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
24 current GDB settings.
25
26 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
27 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
28 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
29 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
30
31 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
32 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
33 postfix [PAC].
34
35 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
36 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
37
38 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
39 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
40 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
41
42 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
43 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
44 commands.
45
46 * Command names can now use the . character.
47
48 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
49
50 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
51 messages.
52
53 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
54
55 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
56 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
57
58 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
59 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
60 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
61
62 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
63
64 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
65 not visible in the current scope.
66
67 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
68 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
69 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
70 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
71 compiled with support for that language.
72
73 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
74 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
75 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
76
77 * Python API
78
79 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
80 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
81 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
82 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
83 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
84
85 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
86 type was defined in.
87
88 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
89 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
90 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
91 is given.
92
93 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
94 symbols with static linkage.
95
96 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
97 all static symbols with static linkage.
98
99 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
100 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
101
102 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
103 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
104
105 * New commands
106
107 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
108 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
109 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
110 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
111 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
112 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
113 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
114
115 define-prefix COMMAND
116 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
117
118 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
119 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
120 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
121 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
122 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
123 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
124 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
125 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
126 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
127 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
128 of array elements to print.
129
130 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
131 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
132
133 set may-call-functions [on|off]
134 show may-call-functions
135 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
136 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
137 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
138 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
139 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
140 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
141 in the program.
142
143 set print finish [on|off]
144 show print finish
145 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
146 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
147 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
148 default is `on'.
149
150 set print max-depth
151 show print max-depth
152 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
153 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
154 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
155 the old behavior back.
156
157 set print raw-values [on|off]
158 show print raw-values
159 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
160 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
161 of commands. The default is 'off'.
162
163 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
164 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
165 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
166
167 set style title foreground COLOR
168 set style title background COLOR
169 set style title intensity VALUE
170 Control the styling of titles.
171
172 set style highlight foreground COLOR
173 set style highlight background COLOR
174 set style highlight intensity VALUE
175 Control the styling of highlightings.
176
177 maint set worker-threads
178 maint show worker-threads
179 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
180 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
181 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
182 the names of linker symbols.
183
184 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
185 set style tui-border background COLOR
186 Control the styling of TUI borders.
187
188 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
189 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
190 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
191
192 maint set test-settings KIND
193 maint show test-settings KIND
194 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
195 infrastructure.
196
197 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
198 maint show tui-resize-message
199 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
200 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
201 TUI.
202
203 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
204 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
205 show print frame-info
206 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
207 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
208 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
209 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
210
211 set tui compact-source
212 show tui compact-source
213
214 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
215 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
216 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
217 line numbers from the source.
218
219 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
220 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
221 no REGEXP is given.
222
223 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
224 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
225 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
226 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
227 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
228 matches against the function name.
229
230 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
231 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
232 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
233 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
234 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
235 against the variable name.
236
237 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
238 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
239 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
240 "set debug remote".
241 The default is 512 bytes.
242
243 * Changed commands
244
245 help
246 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
247 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
248 command names.
249
250 apropos [-v] REGEXP
251 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
252 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
253 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
254 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
255 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
256
257 printf
258 eval
259 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
260 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
261 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
262 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
263
264 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
265 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
266 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
267 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
268 parts of the files.
269
270 show style
271 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
272 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
273 the user visualize the different styles.
274
275 set print frame-arguments
276 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
277 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
278
279 set print raw-frame-arguments
280 show print raw-frame-arguments
281
282 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
283 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
284 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
285 release.
286
287 maint test-options require-delimiter
288 maint test-options unknown-is-error
289 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
290 maint show test-options-completion-result
291 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
292 framework.
293
294 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
295 These commands are now case-sensitive.
296
297 * New command options, command completion
298
299 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
300 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
301 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
302 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
303 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
304 number of commands got support for new command options in this
305 release:
306
307 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
308 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
309 set by "set print" subcommands:
310
311 -address [on|off]
312 -array [on|off]
313 -array-indexes [on|off]
314 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
315 -null-stop [on|off]
316 -object [on|off]
317 -pretty [on|off]
318 -raw-values [on|off]
319 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
320 -static-members [on|off]
321 -symbol [on|off]
322 -union [on|off]
323 -vtbl [on|off]
324
325 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
326 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
327 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
328 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
329
330 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
331 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
332 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
333
334 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
335 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
336 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
337 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
338 |location-and-address|short-location
339 -past-main [on|off]
340 -past-entry [on|off]
341
342 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
343 exposed as command options too:
344
345 -full
346 -no-filters
347 -hide
348
349 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
350 support the following options:
351
352 -past-main [on|off]
353 -past-entry [on|off]
354
355 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
356 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
357
358 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
359 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
360 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
361 like for example:
362
363 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
364
365 The above is equivalent to:
366
367 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
368
369 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
370 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
371 variables" and "info functions".
372
373 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
374 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
375 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
376 from the results.
377
378 * Completion improvements
379
380 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
381 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
382 abbreviated.
383
384 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
385 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
386 commands.
387
388 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
389 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
390 completes on filenames.
391
392 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
393 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
394
395 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
396
397 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
398 elements unlimited".
399
400 * New MI commands
401
402 -complete
403 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
404 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
405 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
406
407 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
408 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
409 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
410
411 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
412 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
413 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
414
415 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
416 modules' command.
417
418 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
419 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
420 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
421
422 * Other MI changes
423
424 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
425
426 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
427 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
428 the following commands and events:
429
430 - -break-insert
431 - -break-info
432 - =breakpoint-created
433 - =breakpoint-modified
434
435 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
436 this behavior with previous MI versions.
437
438 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
439 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
440 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
441 present.
442
443 * Testsuite
444
445 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
446 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
447 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
448 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
449
450 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
451
452 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
453 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
454
455 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
456
457 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
458 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
459
460 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
461 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
462 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
463
464 * Removed targets and native configurations
465
466 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
467 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
468 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
469
470 * New Simulators
471
472 TI PRU pru-*-elf
473
474 * Removed targets and native configurations
475
476 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
477 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
478
479 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
480
481 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
482 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
483 HTM registers.
484
485 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
486 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
487 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
488 and operators.
489
490 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
491 (the C++ plug-in).
492
493 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
494 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
495 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
496
497 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
498 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
499
500 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
501 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
502 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
503 in the GDB user manual.
504
505 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
506 executed failed.
507
508 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
509
510 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
511 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
512 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
513 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
514 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
515 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
516 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
517 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
518 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
519 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
520 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
521 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
522
523 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
524 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
525 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
526 information.
527
528 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
529 lucid.
530
531 * New commands
532
533 set debug compile-cplus-types
534 show debug compile-cplus-types
535 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
536 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
537 for other languages.
538
539 set debug skip
540 show debug skip
541 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
542 displayed.
543
544 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
545 Apply a command to some frames.
546 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
547 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
548
549 taas COMMAND
550 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
551 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
552
553 faas COMMAND
554 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
555 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
556
557 tfaas COMMAND
558 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
559 output).
560 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
561
562 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
563 maint show dwarf unwinders
564 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
565
566 info proc files
567 Display a list of open files for a process.
568
569 * Changed commands
570
571 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
572 These commands all now take a frame specification which
573 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
574 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
575 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
576 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
577 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
578
579 target remote FILENAME
580 target extended-remote FILENAME
581 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
582 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
583
584 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
585 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
586 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
587 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
588 These commands can now print only the searched entities
589 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
590 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
591 printing headers or informations messages.
592
593 info functions
594 info types
595 info variables
596 rbreak
597 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
598 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
599 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
600 the shown entities.
601
602 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
603 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
604 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
605 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
606
607 set tui tab-width NCHARS
608 show tui tab-width NCHARS
609 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
610
611 set style enabled [on|off]
612 show style enabled
613 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
614 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
615
616 set style sources [on|off]
617 show style sources
618 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
619 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
620 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
621
622 set style filename foreground COLOR
623 set style filename background COLOR
624 set style filename intensity VALUE
625 Control the styling of file names.
626
627 set style function foreground COLOR
628 set style function background COLOR
629 set style function intensity VALUE
630 Control the styling of function names.
631
632 set style variable foreground COLOR
633 set style variable background COLOR
634 set style variable intensity VALUE
635 Control the styling of variable names.
636
637 set style address foreground COLOR
638 set style address background COLOR
639 set style address intensity VALUE
640 Control the styling of addresses.
641
642 * MI changes
643
644 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
645 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
646 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
647 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
648 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
649
650 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
651 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
652
653 * New native configurations
654
655 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
656 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
657
658 * New targets
659
660 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
661 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
662 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
663 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
664 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
665 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
666
667 * Removed targets
668
669 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
670 before Windows XP.
671
672 * Python API
673
674 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
675
676 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
677 space associated to that inferior.
678
679 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
680 of objfiles associated to that program space.
681
682 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
683 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
684 the gdb core.
685
686 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
687 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
688 correct and did not work properly.
689
690 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
691 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
692
693 * Configure changes
694
695 --enable-ubsan
696
697 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
698 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
699 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
700 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
701 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
702
703 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
704
705 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
706 for the MIPS target.
707
708 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
709 offset to all sections.
710
711 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
712 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
713 address of individual sections using '-s'.
714
715 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
716 (address of the text section).
717
718 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
719 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
720 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
721 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
722 default.
723
724 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
725 for the rest of the current command.
726
727 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
728 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
729
730 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
731 files created on FreeBSD systems.
732
733 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
734 alignof.
735
736 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
737 the vector length while the process is running.
738
739 * New commands
740
741 set debug fbsd-nat
742 show debug fbsd-nat
743 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
744
745 set|show varsize-limit
746 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
747 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
748 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
749
750 set|show record btrace cpu
751 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
752 branch trace decode.
753
754 maint check libthread-db
755 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
756 library
757
758 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
759 maint show check-libthread-db
760 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
761 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
762 perform such checks.
763
764 * Python API
765
766 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
767
768 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
769 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
770
771 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
772
773 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
774 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
775 of convenience variables.
776
777 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
778 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
779 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
780
781 * New targets
782
783 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
784
785 * Removed targets and native configurations
786
787 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
788 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
789 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
790 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
791
792 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
793
794 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
795 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
796 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
797 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
798 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
799 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
800 reported.
801
802 * Configure changes
803
804 --enable-codesign=CERT
805 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
806 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
807 gdb to work properly.
808
809 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
810 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
811
812 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
813
814 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
815 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
816 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
817
818 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
819 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
820
821 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
822 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
823 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
824 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
825 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
826
827 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
828 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
829 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
830 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
831
832 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
833 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
834
835 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
836 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
837 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
838
839 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
840 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
841 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
842
843 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
844 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
845 environment" command.
846
847 * Completion improvements
848
849 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
850 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
851 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
852 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
853 correctly:
854
855 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
856 (gdb) b function(int)
857
858 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
859 C++ anonymous namespaces:
860
861 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
862 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
863 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
864 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
865
866 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
867 completion support, that better understands what you're
868 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
869 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
870 setting a breakpoint.
871
872 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
873
874 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
875
876 * New command line options (gcore)
877
878 -a
879 Dump all memory mappings.
880
881 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
882
883 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
884 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
885 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
886
887 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
888
889 A::B::func()
890 B::func()
891
892 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
893 on both symbols.
894
895 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
896 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
897 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
898 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
899 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
900 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
901 a breakpoint from Python.
902
903 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
904
905 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
906 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
907 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
908
909 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
910
911 function[abi:cxx11](int)
912 ^^^^^^^^^^^
913
914 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
915 no tag, like:
916
917 (gdb) b function(int)
918
919 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
920
921 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
922
923 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
924
925 * Python Scripting
926
927 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
928 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
929 description of these.
930
931 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
932 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
933 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
934
935 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
936 manual for a further description of this feature.
937
938
939 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
940
941 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
942 specified initial working directory.
943
944 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
945 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
946
947 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
948 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
949
950 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
951 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
952
953 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
954 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
955 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
956 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
957 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
958
959 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
960 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
961 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
962
963 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
964 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
965 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
966 in the *stopped notification.
967
968 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
969 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
970
971 * New remote packets
972
973 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
974 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
975 the inferior when starting it.
976
977 QEnvironmentUnset
978 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
979 before starting the remote inferior.
980
981 QEnvironmentReset
982 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
983 user-set environment variables should be unset).
984
985 QStartupWithShell
986 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
987
988 QSetWorkingDir
989 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
990 working directory.
991
992 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
993 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
994
995 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
996 filter the tests to be run.
997
998 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
999 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1000
1001 * New commands
1002
1003 set|show cwd
1004 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1005
1006 set|show compile-gcc
1007 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1008 with the 'compile' commands.
1009
1010 set debug separate-debug-file
1011 show debug separate-debug-file
1012 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1013
1014 set dump-excluded-mappings
1015 show dump-excluded-mappings
1016 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1017 dumped when generating a core file.
1018
1019 maint info selftests
1020 List the registered selftests.
1021
1022 starti
1023 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1024
1025 set|show debug or1k
1026 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1027
1028 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1029 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1030 type printer will show.
1031
1032 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1033 `o' for nexti.
1034
1035 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1036
1037 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1038 'int'.
1039
1040 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1041 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1042 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1043 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1044
1045 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1046 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1047 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1048 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1049 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1050 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1051
1052 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1053 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1054 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1055
1056 (gdb) p var
1057 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1058 (gdb) p (float) var
1059 $3 = 3.14
1060
1061 * New native configurations
1062
1063 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1064 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1065
1066 * New targets
1067
1068 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1069 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1070 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1071
1072 * Removed targets and native configurations
1073
1074 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1075
1076 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1077
1078 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1079 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1080 available in future Intel CPUs.
1081
1082 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1083
1084 * Python Scripting
1085
1086 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1087 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1088
1089 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1090 instructions.
1091
1092 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1093
1094 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1095
1096 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1097 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1098 removed.
1099
1100 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1101
1102 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1103 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1104
1105 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1106
1107 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1108 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1109 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1110 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1111 features.
1112
1113 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1114
1115 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1116 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1117 debugger.
1118
1119 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1120
1121 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1122 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1123
1124 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1125
1126 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1127
1128 define mycommand
1129 set $i = 0
1130 while $i < $argc
1131 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1132 set $i = $i + 1
1133 end
1134 end
1135
1136 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1137
1138 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1139 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1140
1141 * New native configurations
1142
1143 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1144
1145 * New targets
1146
1147 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1148 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1149
1150 * Removed targets and native configurations
1151
1152 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1153 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1154
1155 * New commands
1156
1157 flash-erase
1158 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1159
1160 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1161 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1162
1163 * New options
1164
1165 set disassembler-options
1166 show disassembler-options
1167 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1168 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1169 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1170 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1171 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1172
1173 * New MI commands
1174
1175 -target-flash-erase
1176 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1177 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1178
1179 -file-list-shared-libraries
1180 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1181 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1182
1183 -catch-handlers
1184 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1185 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1186
1187 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1188
1189 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1190
1191 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1192 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1193 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1194 option will be removed in a future release.
1195
1196 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1197 GDB connection.
1198
1199 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1200 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1201
1202 (gdb) bt
1203 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1204 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1205 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1206 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1207 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1208 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1209 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1210 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1211 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1212
1213 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1214 arrays of dynamic types.
1215
1216 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1217 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1218 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1219 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1220 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1221 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1222
1223 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1224 descriptions.
1225
1226 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1227 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1228 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1229
1230 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1231
1232 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1233 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1234 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1235 signal received and code location.
1236
1237 For example:
1238
1239 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1240 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1241 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1242 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1243
1244 * Rust language support.
1245 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1246 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1247 Rust.
1248
1249 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1250
1251 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1252 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1253 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1254 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1255 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1256 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1257 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1258 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1259 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1260 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1261 line.
1262
1263 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1264
1265 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1266 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1267
1268 * New commands
1269
1270 skip -file file
1271 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1272 skip -function function
1273 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1274 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1275 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1276 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1277
1278 maint info line-table REGEXP
1279 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
1280
1281 maint selftest
1282 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1283
1284 new-ui INTERP TTY
1285 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1286 using the TTY file for input/output.
1287
1288 * Python Scripting
1289
1290 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1291 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1292 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1293 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1294 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1295
1296 signal-event EVENTID
1297 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1298 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1299 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1300 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1301 signalling an event.
1302
1303 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1304 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1305 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1306
1307 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1308 been removed:
1309
1310 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1311 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1312 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1313 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1314 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1315 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1316
1317 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1318 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1319 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1320 bytecode into native code.
1321
1322 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1323 recording. For example:
1324
1325 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1326
1327 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1328
1329 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1330
1331 * New targets
1332
1333 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1334
1335 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1336
1337 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1338
1339 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1340
1341 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1342 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1343 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1344
1345 (gdb) info threads
1346 Id Target Id Frame
1347 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1348 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1349 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1350 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1351
1352 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1353 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1354 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1355
1356 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1357 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1358 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1359
1360 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1361 IDs.
1362
1363 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1364 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1365
1366 (gdb) thread 2.1
1367 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1368 (gdb)
1369
1370 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1371 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1372 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1373 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1374 threads 2.*".
1375
1376 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1377 all threads.
1378
1379 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1380 the current thread.
1381
1382 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1383 current inferior.
1384
1385 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1386 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1387 example:
1388
1389 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1390 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1391
1392 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1393
1394 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1395
1396 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1397 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1398
1399 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1400 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1401 clients.
1402
1403 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1404 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1405 at the same time.
1406
1407 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1408 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1409 into native code.
1410
1411 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1412
1413 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1414 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1415 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1416
1417 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1418 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1419
1420 * New commands
1421
1422 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1423 maint show target-non-stop
1424 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1425 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1426 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1427
1428 maint set bfd-sharing
1429 maint show bfd-sharing
1430 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1431
1432 set debug bfd-cache
1433 show debug bfd-cache
1434 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1435
1436 set debug fbsd-lwp
1437 show debug fbsd-lwp
1438 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1439
1440 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1441 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1442 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1443
1444 set remote thread-events
1445 show remote thread-events
1446 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1447
1448 set ada print-signatures on|off
1449 show ada print-signatures"
1450 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1451 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
1452
1453 set max-value-size
1454 show max-value-size
1455 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1456 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1457 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1458
1459 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1460 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1461 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1462 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1463 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1464 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1465
1466 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1467 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1468
1469 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1470 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1471
1472 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1473
1474 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1475 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1476 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1477 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1478 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1479 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1480
1481 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1482 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1483
1484 catch handlers
1485 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1486
1487 * New remote packets
1488
1489 exec stop reason
1490 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1491
1492 exec-events feature in qSupported
1493 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1494 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1495 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1496 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1497
1498 vCtrlC
1499 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1500 non-stop mode.
1501
1502 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1503 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1504
1505 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1506 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1507
1508 QThreadEvents
1509 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1510 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1511 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1512 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1513 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1514 stop for that same thread.
1515
1516 N stop reply
1517 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1518 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1519 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1520
1521 QCatchSyscalls
1522 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1523 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1524
1525 syscall_entry stop reason
1526 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1527
1528 syscall_return stop reason
1529 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1530
1531 * Extended-remote exec events
1532
1533 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1534 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1535 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1536
1537 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1538 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1539 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1540
1541 * Thread names in remote protocol
1542
1543 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1544 thread.
1545
1546 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1547
1548 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1549 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1550 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1551 fork and exec catchpoints.
1552
1553 * Remote syscall events
1554
1555 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1556 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1557
1558 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1559 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1560 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1561
1562 * MI changes
1563
1564 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1565 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1566 left.
1567
1568 * Python Scripting
1569
1570 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1571 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1572 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1573 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1574 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1575 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1576
1577 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1578
1579 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1580 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1581 including advance SIMD instructions.
1582
1583 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1584
1585 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1586 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1587 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1588 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1589 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1590 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1591 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1592
1593 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1594 cpu information :
1595 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1596
1597 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1598 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1599 remote serial I/O.
1600
1601 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1602 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1603 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1604
1605 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1606 is now available on all platforms.
1607
1608 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1609 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1610 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1611 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1612 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1613 backward compatibility.
1614
1615 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1616 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1617 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1618 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1619
1620 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1621 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1622 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1623 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1624 packets" below.
1625
1626 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1627
1628 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1629
1630 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1631 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1632 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1633 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1634 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1635 See "New remote packets" below.
1636
1637 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1638 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1639
1640 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1641 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1642 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1643 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1644 are ignored.
1645
1646 * Guile Scripting
1647
1648 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1649
1650 * Python Scripting
1651
1652 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1653 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1654 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1655 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1656 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1657 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1658 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1659 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1660 "const" version of the value respectively.
1661
1662 * New commands
1663
1664 maint print symbol-cache
1665 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1666
1667 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1668 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1669
1670 maint flush-symbol-cache
1671 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1672
1673 record btrace bts
1674 record bts
1675 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1676
1677 compile print
1678 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1679
1680 tui enable
1681 tui disable
1682 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1683
1684 show mpx bound
1685 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1686 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1687
1688 record btrace pt
1689 record pt
1690 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1691
1692 maint info btrace
1693 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1694
1695 maint btrace packet-history
1696 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1697
1698 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1699 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1700
1701 maint btrace clear
1702 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1703 anew by the next "record" command.
1704
1705 * New options
1706
1707 set debug dwarf-die
1708 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1709 show debug dwarf-die
1710 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1711
1712 set debug dwarf-read
1713 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1714 show debug dwarf-read
1715 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1716
1717 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1718 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1719 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1720 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1721
1722 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1723 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1724 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1725 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1726
1727 set debug dwarf-line
1728 show debug dwarf-line
1729 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1730
1731 set max-completions
1732 show max-completions
1733 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1734 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1735 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1736 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1737
1738 set history remove-duplicates
1739 show history remove-duplicates
1740 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1741
1742 maint set symbol-cache-size
1743 maint show symbol-cache-size
1744 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1745
1746 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1747 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1748 BTS format.
1749 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1750 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1751
1752 set debug linux-namespaces
1753 show debug linux-namespaces
1754 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1755
1756 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1757 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1758 Intel Processor Trace format.
1759 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1760 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1761
1762 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1763 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1764 packet history.
1765
1766 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1767 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1768
1769 * Python/Guile scripting
1770
1771 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1772 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1773
1774 * New remote packets
1775
1776 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1777 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1778
1779 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1780 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1781
1782 Qbtrace:pt
1783 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1784 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1785 qSupported query.
1786
1787 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1788 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1789 Trace format.
1790
1791 swbreak stop reason
1792 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1793 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1794 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1795 mode operation.
1796
1797 hwbreak stop reason
1798 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1799 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1800
1801 vFile:fstat:
1802 Return information about files on the remote system.
1803
1804 qXfer:exec-file:read
1805 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1806 create a process running on the remote system.
1807
1808 vFile:setfs:
1809 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1810 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1811 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1812 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1813
1814 fork stop reason
1815 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1816
1817 vfork stop reason
1818 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1819
1820 vforkdone stop reason
1821 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1822 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1823
1824 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1825 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1826 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1827 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1828 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1829 whether these features are enabled.
1830
1831 * Extended-remote fork events
1832
1833 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1834 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1835 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1836 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1837
1838 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1839 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1840 the btrace record target.
1841 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1842
1843 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1844 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1845
1846 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1847 targets.
1848
1849 * Removed command line options
1850
1851 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1852
1853 * Removed targets and native configurations
1854
1855 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1856 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1857
1858 * New configure options
1859
1860 --with-intel-pt
1861 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1862 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1863
1864 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1865 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1866 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1867 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1868
1869 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1870
1871 * Python Scripting
1872
1873 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1874
1875 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1876
1877 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1878
1879 * Python Scripting
1880
1881 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1882 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1883 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1884 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1885 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1886 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1887 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1888 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1889 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1890 selecting a new file to debug.
1891 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1892 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1893
1894 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1895 inferior.
1896
1897 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1898 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1899 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1900 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1901
1902 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1903
1904 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1905 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1906 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1907 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1908
1909 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1910 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1911 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1912 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1913 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1914 interface with this new feature are:
1915
1916 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1917 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1918
1919 * New commands
1920
1921 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1922 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1923 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1924 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1925 as "maint demangler-warning".
1926
1927 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1928 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1929
1930 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1931 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1932 scripts.
1933
1934 maint print user-registers
1935 List all currently available "user" registers.
1936
1937 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1938 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1939 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1940
1941 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1942 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1943 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1944 provided.
1945
1946 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1947 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1948 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1949 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1950 at resume time.
1951
1952 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1953 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1954 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1955 switched threads meanwhile.
1956
1957 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1958
1959 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1960 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1961 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1962 is now the default mode.
1963
1964 * New options
1965
1966 set debug symbol-lookup
1967 show debug symbol-lookup
1968 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1969
1970 * MI changes
1971
1972 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1973 inferiors that have exited.
1974
1975 * New targets
1976
1977 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1978
1979 * Removed targets
1980
1981 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1982
1983 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1984 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1985 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1986 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1987 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1988
1989 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1990 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1991 its alias "share", instead.
1992
1993 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1994
1995 * New command line options
1996
1997 -D data-directory
1998 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1999
2000 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2001 as specified in ISO C99.
2002
2003 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2004 with or without disassembly.
2005
2006 * Guile scripting
2007
2008 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2009 available is determined at configure time.
2010 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2011 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2012
2013 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2014
2015 guile [code]
2016 gu [code]
2017 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2018
2019 guile-repl
2020 gr
2021 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2022
2023 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2024 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2025
2026 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2027 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2028
2029 * New options
2030
2031 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2032 show print symbol-loading
2033 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2034 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2035 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2036 becomes less useful.
2037
2038 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2039 show guile print-stack
2040 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2041
2042 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2043 show auto-load guile-scripts
2044 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2045
2046 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2047 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2048 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2049 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2050 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2051 usage of this option.
2052
2053 set auto-connect-native-target
2054
2055 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2056 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2057 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2058
2059 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2060 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2061 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2062
2063 maint set target-async (on|off)
2064 maint show target-async
2065 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2066 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2067 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2068 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2069
2070 set mi-async (on|off)
2071 show mi-async
2072 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2073 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2074
2075 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2076 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2077
2078 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2079 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2080 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2081 "set target-async on" command.
2082
2083 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2084
2085 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2086 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2087 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2088 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2089 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2090
2091 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2092 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2093 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2094
2095 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2096 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2097 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2098 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2099 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2100 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2101 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2102
2103 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2104 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2105
2106 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2107 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2108 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2109
2110 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2111 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2112 memory or registers.
2113
2114 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2115
2116 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2117 remote. It now works with all targets.
2118
2119 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2120 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2121 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2122 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2123 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2124 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2125 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2126 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2127 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2128 target-stack".
2129
2130 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2131 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2132 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2133
2134 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2135
2136 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2137 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2138 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2139
2140 * New remote packets
2141
2142 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2143 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2144 branch trace incrementally.
2145
2146 * Python Scripting
2147
2148 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2149 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2150 available.
2151 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2152 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2153 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2154 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2155 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2156
2157 * New targets
2158 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2159
2160 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2161 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2162 its alias "share", instead.
2163
2164 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2165 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2166 instead.
2167
2168 * MI changes
2169
2170 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2171 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2172 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2173 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2174 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2175 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2176 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2177 commands and CLI execution commands.
2178
2179 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2180
2181 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2182 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2183 recording has been added.
2184
2185 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2186
2187 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2188 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2189
2190 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2191 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2192 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2193 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2194 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2195 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2196 "void".
2197
2198 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2199
2200 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2201
2202 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2203 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2204 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2205 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2206
2207 (gdb) p $rax
2208 $1 = <not saved>
2209
2210 (gdb) info registers rax
2211 rax <not saved>
2212
2213 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2214 "*value not available*".
2215
2216 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2217 to binaries.
2218
2219 * Python scripting
2220
2221 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2222 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2223 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2224 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2225 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2226 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2227
2228 * New targets
2229
2230 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2231 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2232 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2233
2234 * Removed native configurations
2235
2236 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2237 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2238
2239 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2240 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2241 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2242 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2243 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2244 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2245 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2246
2247 * New commands:
2248 catch rethrow
2249 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2250 maint check-psymtabs
2251 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2252 maint check-symtabs
2253 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2254 maint expand-symtabs
2255 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2256
2257 show configuration
2258 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2259
2260 maint set|show per-command
2261 maint set|show per-command space
2262 maint set|show per-command time
2263 maint set|show per-command symtab
2264 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2265
2266 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2267 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2268 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2269 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2270 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2271
2272 info exceptions
2273 info exceptions REGEXP
2274 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2275 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2276 are listed.
2277
2278 * New options
2279
2280 set debug symfile off|on
2281 show debug symfile
2282 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2283 symbol tables within those files
2284
2285 set print raw frame-arguments
2286 show print raw frame-arguments
2287 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2288 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2289
2290 set remote trace-status-packet
2291 show remote trace-status-packet
2292 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2293
2294 set debug nios2
2295 show debug nios2
2296 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2297
2298 set range-stepping
2299 show range-stepping
2300 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2301
2302 set startup-with-shell
2303 show startup-with-shell
2304 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2305 directly.
2306
2307 set code-cache
2308 show code-cache
2309 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2310 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2311
2312 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2313 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2314 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2315 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2316 "set height 0".
2317
2318 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2319 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2320 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2321
2322 * New command-line options
2323 --configuration
2324 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2325
2326 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2327 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2328
2329 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2330 GDB command gcore.
2331
2332 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2333
2334 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2335 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2336
2337 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2338 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2339
2340 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2341 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2342 due to an uncaught signal.
2343
2344 * MI changes
2345
2346 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2347 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2348 command, which should contain "language-option".
2349
2350 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2351 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2352
2353 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2354 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2355 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2356 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2357 "undefined-command-error-code".
2358
2359 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2360 Trace Format now.
2361
2362 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2363
2364 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2365 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2366 are displayed.
2367
2368 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2369 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2370
2371 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2372 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2373 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2374
2375 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2376 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2377 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2378 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2379 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2380 "exec-run-start-option".
2381
2382 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2383 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2384
2385 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2386 the new "info exceptions" command.
2387
2388 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2389 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2390 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2391 ** ElinOS
2392 ** Wind River Linux
2393
2394 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2395 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2396 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2397 below.
2398
2399 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2400 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2401
2402 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2403 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2404 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2405
2406 * New remote packets
2407
2408 vCont;r
2409
2410 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2411 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2412 involvemement at each single-step.
2413
2414 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2415 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2416 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2417 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2418 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2419 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2420 speedup.
2421
2422 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2423
2424 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2425 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2426
2427 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2428 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2429 trace state variables.
2430
2431 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2432 target.
2433
2434 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2435 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2436
2437 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2438
2439 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2440 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2441 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2442 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2443
2444 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2445
2446 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2447 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2448 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2449 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2450
2451 set|show record full insn-number-max
2452 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2453 set|show record full memory-query
2454
2455 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2456 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2457 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2458 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2459 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2460
2461 record btrace
2462
2463 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2464 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2465
2466 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2467 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2468 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2469
2470 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2471 instruction granularity
2472
2473 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2474 function granularity
2475
2476 * New native configurations
2477
2478 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2479 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2480 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2481 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2482
2483 * New targets
2484
2485 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2486 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2487 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2488 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2489 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2490
2491 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2492 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2493 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2494 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2495 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2496 --data-directory command-line option.
2497
2498 * New command line options:
2499
2500 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2501 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2502
2503 * Removed command line options
2504
2505 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2506 Emacs.
2507
2508 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2509 type formatting.
2510
2511 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2512
2513 * Python scripting
2514
2515 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2516
2517 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2518
2519 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2520
2521 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2522
2523 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2524 of architecture in the Python API.
2525
2526 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2527 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2528
2529 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2530
2531 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2532 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2533 ** $_strlen(str)
2534 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2535
2536 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2537 given an argument.
2538
2539 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2540 default for GCC since November 2000.
2541
2542 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2543
2544 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2545 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2546
2547 * New configure options
2548
2549 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2550 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2551 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2552 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2553 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2554 options allow the user to override that default.
2555 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2556 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2557 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2558
2559 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2560
2561 catch signal
2562 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2563 conditions to be attached.
2564
2565 maint info bfds
2566 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2567
2568 python-interactive [command]
2569 pi [command]
2570 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2571 and print the result of expressions.
2572
2573 py [command]
2574 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2575
2576 enable type-printer [name]...
2577 disable type-printer [name]...
2578 Enable or disable type printers.
2579
2580 * Removed commands
2581
2582 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2583 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2584 instead.
2585
2586 * New options
2587
2588 set print type methods (on|off)
2589 show print type methods
2590 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2591 The default is to show them.
2592
2593 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2594 show print type typedefs
2595 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2596 The default is to show them.
2597
2598 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2599 show filename-display
2600 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2601 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2602
2603 set trace-buffer-size
2604 show trace-buffer-size
2605 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2606
2607 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2608 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2609 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2610
2611 set debug aarch64
2612 show debug aarch64
2613 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2614 The default is off.
2615
2616 set debug coff-pe-read
2617 show debug coff-pe-read
2618 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2619 exported symbols.
2620
2621 set debug mach-o
2622 show debug mach-o
2623 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2624 processing.
2625
2626 set debug notification
2627 show debug notification
2628 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2629
2630 * MI changes
2631
2632 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2633 "=cmd-param-changed".
2634 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2635 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2636 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2637 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2638 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2639 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2640 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2641 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2642 "=memory-changed".
2643 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2644 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2645 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2646 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2647 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2648 library load/unload events.
2649 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2650 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2651 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2652 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2653 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2654 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2655 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2656 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2657
2658 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2659 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2660 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2661 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2662
2663 * New remote packets
2664
2665 QTBuffer:size
2666 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2667 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2668
2669 Qbtrace:bts
2670 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2671 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2672 qSupported query.
2673
2674 Qbtrace:off
2675 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2676 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2677
2678 qXfer:btrace:read
2679 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2680 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2681
2682 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2683
2684 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2685 for more x32 ABI info.
2686
2687 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2688
2689 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2690
2691 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2692 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2693 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2694 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2695 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2696 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2697 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2698 "info os msg" lists message queues
2699 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2700
2701 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2702 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2703 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2704 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2705 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2706 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2707
2708 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2709 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2710 record/replay support.
2711
2712 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2713
2714 * Python scripting
2715
2716 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2717 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2718
2719 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2720
2721 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2722 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2723
2724 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2725
2726 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2727 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2728
2729 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2730 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2731 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2732 symbol's value.
2733
2734 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2735 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2736
2737 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2738 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2739 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2740
2741 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2742 object associated with a PC value.
2743
2744 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2745 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2746
2747 * Go language support.
2748 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2749 language.
2750
2751 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2752 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2753
2754 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2755 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2756
2757 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2758 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2759 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2760 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2761 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2762 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2763
2764 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2765 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2766 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2767 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2768
2769 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2770 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2771
2772 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2773 since December 2007.
2774
2775 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2776 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2777 command does. For instance:
2778
2779 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2780
2781 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2782 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2783 created, using the "condition" command.
2784
2785 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2786 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2787
2788 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2789
2790 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2791 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2792 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2793 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2794 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2795 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2796 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2797 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2798
2799 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2800 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2801 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2802 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2803 the .gdb_index section.
2804
2805 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2806
2807 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2808 target.
2809
2810 * MI changes
2811
2812 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2813
2814 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2815
2816 * New commands
2817
2818 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2819 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2820 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2821
2822 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2823 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2824
2825 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2826 several hits.
2827
2828 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2829 C++ and Java objects.
2830
2831 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2832 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2833 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2834 configured with '--with-python'.
2835
2836 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2837 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2838 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2839 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2840 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2841 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2842 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2843
2844 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2845 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2846 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2847 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2848
2849 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2850 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2851 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2852 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2853
2854 ** "set print symbol"
2855 "show print symbol"
2856 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2857 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2858 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2859
2860 * Deprecated commands
2861
2862 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2863 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2864
2865 * New targets
2866
2867 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2868 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2869
2870 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2871 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2872 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2873 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2874 evaluates to true.
2875
2876 * New options
2877
2878 set mips compression
2879 show mips compression
2880 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2881 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2882 mips16
2883 micromips
2884 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2885
2886 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2887 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2888 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2889 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2890 available mode.
2891 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2892 target.
2893
2894 set auto-load off
2895 Disable auto-loading globally.
2896
2897 show auto-load
2898 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2899
2900 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2901 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2902 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2903
2904 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2905 show auto-load python-scripts
2906 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2907
2908 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2909 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2910 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2911
2912 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2913 show auto-load libthread-db
2914 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2915
2916 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2917 show auto-load scripts-directory
2918 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2919 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2920 of the directories listed by this option.
2921 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2922
2923 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2924 show auto-load safe-path
2925 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2926 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2927
2928 set debug auto-load on|off
2929 show debug auto-load
2930 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2931
2932 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2933 show dprintf-style
2934 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2935 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2936 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2937 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2938
2939 set dprintf-function <expr>
2940 show dprintf-function
2941 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2942 show dprintf-channel
2943 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2944 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2945
2946 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2947 show disconnected-dprintf
2948 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2949 after GDB disconnects.
2950
2951 * New configure options
2952
2953 --with-auto-load-dir
2954 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2955 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2956 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2957 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2958 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2959
2960 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2961 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2962 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2963
2964 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2965 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2966 security feature.
2967
2968 * New remote packets
2969
2970 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2971
2972 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2973 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2974 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2975 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2976
2977 QProgramSignals:
2978
2979 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2980 program without GDB involvement.
2981
2982 * New command line options
2983
2984 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2985 before loading inferior.
2986 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2987 execute it before loading inferior.
2988
2989 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2990
2991 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2992 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2993 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2994 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2995 inferior changes.
2996
2997 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2998 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2999
3000 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3001 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3002 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3003 target hardware watchpoint.
3004
3005 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3006 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3007 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3008 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3009
3010 * Python scripting
3011
3012 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3013 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3014 existing one.
3015
3016 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3017 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3018 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3019 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3020 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3021 the stack trace.
3022
3023 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3024 Python API.
3025
3026 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3027 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3028 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3029 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3030 corresponding value.
3031
3032 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3033 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3034 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3035 on GDB start-up.
3036
3037 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3038 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3039 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3040 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3041
3042 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3043
3044 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3045 "gdb.breakpoints".
3046
3047 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3048 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3049 available in the CLI.
3050
3051 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3052 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3053 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3054 "some_type.items()".
3055
3056 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3057 new object file.
3058
3059 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3060 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3061 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3062 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3063 any anonymous fields.
3064
3065 * MI changes
3066
3067 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3068 "solib-event".
3069
3070 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3071 "=breakpoint-modified".
3072
3073 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3074
3075 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3076 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3077 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3078 lives.
3079
3080 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3081 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3082 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3083 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3084 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3085
3086 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3087 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3088
3089 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3090 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3091 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3092 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3093 use this option to specify where to find it.
3094
3095 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3096 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3097 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3098 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3099 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3100 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3101 section in the user manual for more details.
3102
3103 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3104 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3105 become available after that.
3106
3107 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3108
3109 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3110 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3111 gcc version 4.7.
3112
3113 * New commands
3114
3115 !SHELL COMMAND
3116 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3117 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3118
3119 * Changed commands
3120
3121 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3122 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3123 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3124
3125 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3126 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3127 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3128
3129 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3130 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3131 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3132 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3133 name starts with a hyphen.
3134
3135 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3136 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3137 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3138 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3139 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3140 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3141 number of bytes that will be collected.
3142
3143 tstart [NOTES]
3144 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3145 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3146 setting the variable trace-notes.
3147
3148 tstop [NOTES]
3149 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3150 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3151 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3152 trace-stop-notes.
3153
3154 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3155 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3156 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3157 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3158 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3159 is running.
3160
3161 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3162 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3163 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3164
3165 * New options
3166
3167 set debug dwarf2-read
3168 show debug dwarf2-read
3169 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3170 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3171
3172 set debug symtab-create
3173 show debug symtab-create
3174 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3175 creation. The default is off.
3176
3177 set extended-prompt
3178 show extended-prompt
3179 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3180 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3181 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3182 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3183 prompt is displayed.
3184
3185 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3186 show print entry-values
3187 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3188 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3189 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3190
3191 set debug entry-values
3192 show debug entry-values
3193 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3194 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3195
3196 set basenames-may-differ
3197 show basenames-may-differ
3198 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3199 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3200 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3201 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3202 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3203 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3204 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3205 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3206
3207 set trace-user
3208 show trace-user
3209 set trace-notes
3210 show trace-notes
3211 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3212 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3213 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3214 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3215
3216 set trace-stop-notes
3217 show trace-stop-notes
3218 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3219 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3220 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3221 started by someone else.
3222
3223 * New remote packets
3224
3225 QTEnable
3226
3227 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3228
3229 QTDisable
3230
3231 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3232
3233 QTNotes
3234
3235 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3236
3237 qTP
3238
3239 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3240
3241 qTMinFTPILen
3242
3243 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3244 be placed.
3245
3246 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3247 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3248
3249 * New targets
3250
3251 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3252
3253 * New Simulators
3254
3255 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3256
3257 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3258
3259 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3260
3261 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3262
3263 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3264 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3265 matches the given regular expression.
3266
3267 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3268
3269 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3270 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3271
3272 * New command line options
3273
3274 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3275 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3276
3277 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3278 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3279
3280 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3281 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3282 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3283
3284 * GDB now understands thread names.
3285
3286 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3287 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3288
3289 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3290 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3291
3292 * OpenCL C
3293 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3294 has been integrated into GDB.
3295
3296 * Python scripting
3297
3298 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3299 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3300 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3301
3302 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3303 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3304 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3305 and allows for more dynamic content.
3306
3307 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3308 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3309 have an is_valid method.
3310
3311 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3312 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3313 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3314
3315 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3316
3317 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3318 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3319 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3320 that function like so:
3321
3322 result = some_value (10,20)
3323
3324 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3325 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3326 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3327
3328 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3329 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3330 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3331 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3332 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3333
3334 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3335 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3336
3337 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3338
3339 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3340 selected thread.
3341
3342 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3343 holds the thread's name.
3344
3345 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3346 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3347 occurring in the process being debugged.
3348 The following events are currently supported:
3349 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3350 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3351 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3352
3353 * C++ Improvements:
3354
3355 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3356 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3357
3358 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3359
3360 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3361 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3362 was added to GCC 4.5.
3363
3364 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3365 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3366 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3367 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3368 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3369 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3370
3371 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3372 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3373 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3374 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3375 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3376
3377 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3378 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3379 execution to a label.
3380
3381 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3382 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3383 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3384 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3385
3386 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3387 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3388 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3389 of scope.
3390
3391 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3392
3393 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3394 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3395 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3396 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3397 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3398 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3399
3400 (gdb) info threads
3401 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3402
3403 While now you see this:
3404
3405 (gdb) info threads
3406 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3407
3408 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3409 dumps.
3410
3411 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3412 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3413 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3414 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3415
3416 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3417 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3418 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3419 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3420 section in the user manual for more details.
3421
3422 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3423
3424 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3425 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3426
3427 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3428
3429 * New native configurations
3430
3431 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3432
3433 * New targets:
3434
3435 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3436
3437 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3438 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3439 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3440 in the GDB user manual.
3441
3442 * Guile support was removed.
3443
3444 * New features in the GNU simulator
3445
3446 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3447
3448 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3449
3450 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3451
3452 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3453
3454 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3455 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3456 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3457 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3458 was always disabled for such configurations.
3459
3460 * C++ Improvements:
3461
3462 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3463
3464 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3465 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3466 For example:
3467 namespace A
3468 {
3469 class B { };
3470 void foo (B) { }
3471 }
3472 ...
3473 A::B b
3474 foo(b)
3475 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3476 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3477 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3478
3479 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3480
3481 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3482 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3483 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3484 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3485 entry.
3486 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3487 mentioned flavors of operators.
3488
3489 ** static const class members
3490
3491 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3492 class definition has been fixed.
3493
3494 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3495
3496 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3497 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3498 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3499 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3500 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3501 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3502
3503 * Static tracepoints
3504
3505 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3506 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3507 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3508 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3509 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3510 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3511 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3512 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3513 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3514 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3515 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3516 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3517 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3518 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3519 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3520 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3521 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3522 the "New remote packets" section below.
3523
3524 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3525
3526 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3527 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3528 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3529 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3530
3531 * Observer mode
3532
3533 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3534 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3535 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3536 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3537 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3538 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3539 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3540
3541 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3542 current thread.
3543
3544 * New remote packets
3545
3546 qGetTIBAddr
3547
3548 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3549
3550 qRelocInsn
3551
3552 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3553 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3554 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3555 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3556 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3557 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3558
3559 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
3560
3561 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3562
3563 qTSTMat
3564
3565 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3566 program.
3567
3568 qXfer:statictrace:read
3569
3570 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3571 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3572 to gdb's qSupported query.
3573
3574 QAllow
3575
3576 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3577
3578 QTDPsrc
3579
3580 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3581 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3582
3583 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3584 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3585 a directory.
3586
3587 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3588
3589 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3590 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3591 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3592 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3593
3594 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3595 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3596 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3597 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3598 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3599 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3600 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3601
3602 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3603 for static tracepoints support.
3604
3605 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3606
3607 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3608 it understands register description.
3609
3610 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3611
3612 * X86 general purpose registers
3613
3614 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3615 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3616 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3617 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3618 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3619
3620 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3621 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3622 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3623 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3624 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3625 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3626
3627 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3628 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3629 in the specified file.
3630
3631 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3632 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3633 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3634 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3635 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3636 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3637 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3638 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3639 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3640 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3641
3642 * New commands
3643
3644 eval template, expressions...
3645 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3646 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3647
3648 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3649 show target-file-system-kind
3650 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3651 names.
3652
3653 save breakpoints <filename>
3654 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3655 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3656 definitions, use the `source' command.
3657
3658 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3659 is now deprecated.
3660
3661 info static-tracepoint-markers
3662 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3663
3664 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3665 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3666 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3667
3668 set observer on|off
3669 show observer
3670 Enable and disable observer mode.
3671
3672 set may-write-registers on|off
3673 set may-write-memory on|off
3674 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3675 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3676 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3677 set may-interrupt on|off
3678 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3679 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3680 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3681 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3682 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3683 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3684 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3685
3686 set record memory-query on|off
3687 show record memory-query
3688 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3689 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3690
3691 * Changed commands
3692
3693 disassemble
3694 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3695
3696 * Python scripting
3697
3698 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3699 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3700 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3701 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3702 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3703
3704 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3705 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3706 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3707 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3708
3709 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3710 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3711
3712 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3713
3714 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3715
3716 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3717
3718 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3719 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3720 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3721
3722 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3723 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3724 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3725 regular breakpoints.
3726
3727 * New targets
3728
3729 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3730
3731 * D language support.
3732 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3733 language.
3734
3735 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3736 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3737 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3738 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3739 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3740
3741 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3742 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3743 conditions of the form:
3744
3745 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3746
3747 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3748 interface mentioned above.
3749
3750 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3751
3752 * C++ Improvements
3753
3754 ** Namespace Support
3755
3756 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3757 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3758 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3759 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3760 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3761
3762 ** Bug Fixes
3763
3764 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3765 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3766 qualified name.
3767
3768 ** Cast Operators
3769
3770 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3771 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3772
3773 * New targets
3774
3775 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3776 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3777
3778 * New Simulators
3779
3780 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3781 Renesas RX rx
3782
3783 * Multi-program debugging.
3784
3785 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3786 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3787 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3788 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3789 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3790 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3791 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3792 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3793
3794 * New tracing features
3795
3796 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3797
3798 ** Trace state variables
3799
3800 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3801 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3802 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3803 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3804 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3805 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3806 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3807 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3808 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3809 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3810
3811 ** Fast tracepoints
3812
3813 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3814 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3815 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3816 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3817 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3818 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3819 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3820 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3821 the regular trace command.
3822
3823 ** Disconnected tracing
3824
3825 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3826 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3827 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3828 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3829 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3830
3831 ** Trace files
3832
3833 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3834 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3835 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3836 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3837 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3838 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3839 <name>".
3840
3841 ** Circular trace buffer
3842
3843 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3844 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3845 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3846 not be available for all target agents.
3847
3848 * Changed commands
3849
3850 disassemble
3851 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3852 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3853
3854 info variables
3855 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3856 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3857
3858 source
3859 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3860 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3861 support.
3862
3863 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3864 "set script-extension" (see below).
3865
3866 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3867
3868 record save [<FILENAME>]
3869 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3870 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3871
3872 record restore <FILENAME>
3873 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3874 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3875
3876 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3877 Add a new inferior.
3878
3879 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3880 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3881 inferior has loaded.
3882
3883 remove-inferior ID
3884 Remove an inferior.
3885
3886 maint info program-spaces
3887 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3888
3889 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3890 show remote interrupt-sequence
3891 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3892 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3893 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3894 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3895 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3896
3897 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3898 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3899 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3900 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3901 Linux kernel.
3902
3903 set remotebreak [on | off]
3904 show remotebreak
3905 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3906
3907 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3908 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3909
3910 info tvariables
3911 List trace state variables and their values.
3912
3913 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3914 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3915
3916 teval EXPR, ...
3917 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3918 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3919
3920 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3921 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3922
3923 * New expression syntax
3924
3925 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3926 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3927
3928 * New options
3929
3930 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3931 show follow-exec-mode
3932 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3933 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3934 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3935
3936 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3937 show default-collect
3938 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3939 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3940 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3941
3942 set disconnected-tracing
3943 show disconnected-tracing
3944 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3945 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3946 upon disconnection.
3947
3948 set circular-trace-buffer
3949 show circular-trace-buffer
3950 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3951 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3952 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3953 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3954
3955 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3956 show script-extension
3957 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3958 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3959 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3960 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3961 evaluation failed.
3962 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3963
3964 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3965 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3966 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3967 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3968 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3969 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3970 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3971 is on.
3972
3973 * Python API Improvements
3974
3975 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3976 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3977 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3978
3979 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3980 `is_base_class' attribute.
3981
3982 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3983
3984 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3985 evaluate an expression.
3986
3987 * New remote packets
3988
3989 QTDV
3990 Define a trace state variable.
3991
3992 qTV
3993 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3994
3995 QTDisconnected
3996 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3997
3998 QTBuffer:circular
3999 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4000
4001 qTfP, qTsP
4002 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4003
4004 * Bug fixes
4005
4006 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4007
4008 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4009 much more reliable. In particular:
4010 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4011 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4012 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4013 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4014 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4015 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4016 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4017 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4018 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4019 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4020 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4021 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4022 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4023 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4024 non-threaded programs.
4025
4026 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4027 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4028 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4029 executable program.
4030
4031 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4032
4033 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4034 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4035 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4036 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4037 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4038
4039 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4040 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4041 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4042 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4043 for tracepoint actions.
4044
4045 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4046 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4047 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4048
4049 * Process record and replay
4050
4051 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4052 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4053 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4054 execute commands.
4055
4056 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4057 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4058 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4059 reverse execution.
4060
4061 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4062 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4063 2.6.28 or later.
4064
4065 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4066 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4067 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4068 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4069 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4070 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4071 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4072 the installation instructions for more information.
4073
4074 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4075 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4076 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4077 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4078
4079 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4080 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4081
4082 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4083 now complete on file names.
4084
4085 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4086 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4087 For instance, consider:
4088
4089 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4090 # struct example variable;
4091 (gdb) p variable.
4092
4093 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4094 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4095
4096 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4097 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4098
4099 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4100 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4101 macros.
4102
4103 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4104 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4105 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4106
4107 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4108 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4109 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4110 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4111
4112 * New remote packets
4113
4114 qSearch:memory:
4115 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4116
4117 QStartNoAckMode
4118 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4119 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4120 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4121
4122 vKill
4123 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4124 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4125
4126 qXfer:osdata:read
4127 Obtains additional operating system information
4128
4129 qXfer:siginfo:read
4130 qXfer:siginfo:write
4131 Read or write additional signal information.
4132
4133 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4134
4135 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4136 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4137 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4138
4139 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4140 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4141
4142 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4143 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4144 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4145
4146 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4147 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4148
4149 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4150
4151 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4152
4153 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4154 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4155
4156 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
4157 list of section offsets.
4158
4159 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4160 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4161 have also been fixed.
4162
4163 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4164 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4165 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4166
4167 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4168 example, given:
4169
4170 template<typename T> class C { };
4171 C<char const *> c;
4172
4173 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4174
4175 ptype C<char const *>
4176 ptype C<char const*>
4177 ptype C<const char *>
4178 ptype C<const char*>
4179
4180 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4181
4182 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4183 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4184
4185 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4186 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4187 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4188
4189 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4190 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4191
4192 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4193 gdbserver.
4194
4195 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4196 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4197
4198 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4199 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4200 as appropriate.
4201
4202 * Python scripting
4203
4204 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4205 available is determined at configure time.
4206
4207 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4208
4209 * Ada tasking support
4210
4211 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4212 been introduced:
4213
4214 info tasks
4215 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4216 info task N
4217 Print detailed information about task number N.
4218 task
4219 Print the task number of the current task.
4220 task N
4221 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4222
4223 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4224 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4225
4226 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4227
4228 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4229 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4230 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4231 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4232 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4233 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4234 below.
4235
4236 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4237 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4238 information.
4239
4240 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4241 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4242 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4243 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4244 more information.
4245
4246 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4247
4248 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4249 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4250 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4251 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4252 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4253
4254 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4255 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4256 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4257 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4258 --enable-targets configure option.
4259
4260 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4261
4262 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4263 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4264 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4265 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4266 section in the user manual for more information.
4267
4268 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4269 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4270 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4271 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4272 extensions on linux targets.
4273
4274 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4275
4276 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4277 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4278 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4279 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4280 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4281 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4282 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4283 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4284 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4285
4286 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4287 val1 [, val2, ...]
4288 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4289
4290 maint set python print-stack
4291 maint show python print-stack
4292 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4293
4294 python [CODE]
4295 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4296
4297 macro define
4298 macro list
4299 macro undef
4300 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4301 interactively.
4302
4303 info os processes
4304 Show operating system information about processes.
4305
4306 info inferiors
4307 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4308
4309 inferior NUM
4310 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4311
4312 detach inferior NUM
4313 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4314
4315 kill inferior NUM
4316 Kill inferior number NUM.
4317
4318 * New options
4319
4320 set spu stop-on-load
4321 show spu stop-on-load
4322 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4323
4324 set spu auto-flush-cache
4325 show spu auto-flush-cache
4326 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4327 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4328
4329 set sh calling-convention
4330 show sh calling-convention
4331 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4332
4333 set debug timestamp
4334 show debug timestamp
4335 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4336
4337 set disassemble-next-line
4338 show disassemble-next-line
4339 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4340 the debuggee stops.
4341
4342 set remote noack-packet
4343 show remote noack-packet
4344 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4345 under "New remote packets."
4346
4347 set remote query-attached-packet
4348 show remote query-attached-packet
4349 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4350
4351 set remote read-siginfo-object
4352 show remote read-siginfo-object
4353 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4354 packet.
4355
4356 set remote write-siginfo-object
4357 show remote write-siginfo-object
4358 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4359 packet.
4360
4361 set remote reverse-continue
4362 show remote reverse-continue
4363 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4364
4365 set remote reverse-step
4366 show remote reverse-step
4367 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4368
4369 set displaced-stepping
4370 show displaced-stepping
4371 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4372 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4373 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4374
4375 set debug displaced
4376 show debug displaced
4377 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4378
4379 maint set internal-error
4380 maint show internal-error
4381 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4382
4383 maint set internal-warning
4384 maint show internal-warning
4385 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4386
4387 set exec-wrapper
4388 show exec-wrapper
4389 unset exec-wrapper
4390 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4391
4392 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4393 show multiple-symbols
4394 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4395 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4396 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4397
4398 set breakpoint always-inserted
4399 show breakpoint always-inserted
4400 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4401 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4402 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4403
4404 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4405 show arm fallback-mode
4406 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4407 show arm force-mode
4408 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4409 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4410 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4411 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4412
4413 set disable-randomization
4414 show disable-randomization
4415 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4416 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4417 multiple debugging sessions.
4418
4419 set non-stop
4420 show non-stop
4421 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4422 a breakpoint.
4423
4424 set target-async
4425 show target-async
4426 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4427 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4428 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4429 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4430
4431 set target-wide-charset
4432 show target-wide-charset
4433 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4434 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4435
4436 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4437 show tcp auto-retry
4438 set tcp connect-timeout
4439 show tcp connect-timeout
4440 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4441 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4442 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4443
4444 set libthread-db-search-path
4445 show libthread-db-search-path
4446 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4447 libthread_db.
4448
4449 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4450 show schedule-multiple
4451 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4452 the current process.
4453
4454 set stack-cache
4455 show stack-cache
4456 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4457 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4458 affecting correctness.
4459
4460 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4461 show interactive-mode
4462 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4463 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4464 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4465 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4466 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4467
4468 * Removed commands
4469
4470 info forks
4471 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4472 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4473 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4474 command.
4475
4476 fork NUM
4477 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4478 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4479 alias for the `fork' command.
4480
4481 process PID
4482 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4483 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4484 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4485
4486 delete fork NUM
4487 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4488 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4489 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4490 fork' command.
4491
4492 detach fork NUM
4493 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4494 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4495 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4496 fork' command.
4497
4498 * New native configurations
4499
4500 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4501
4502 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4503
4504 * New targets
4505
4506 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4507 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4508 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4509 S+core 3 score-*-*
4510
4511 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4512 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4513
4514 * Removed commands
4515
4516 catch load
4517 catch unload
4518 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4519
4520 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4521
4522 * New native configurations
4523
4524 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4525 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4526
4527 * New targets
4528
4529 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4530 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
4531
4532 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4533
4534 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4535 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4536 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4537 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4538
4539 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4540 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4541
4542 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4543 is resolved.
4544
4545 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4546 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4547 and in inlined functions.
4548
4549 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4550 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4551 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4552
4553 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4554
4555 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4556 registers on PowerPC targets.
4557
4558 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4559 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4560
4561 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4562 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4563
4564 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4565 extended-remote mode.
4566
4567 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4568 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4569 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4570 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4571
4572 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4573 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4574 target architectures.
4575
4576 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4577 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4578 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4579 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4580
4581 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4582 breakpoints now.
4583
4584 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4585 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4586 include:
4587 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4588 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4589 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4590 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4591 of an assignment
4592 - Improved command completion in Ada
4593 - Several bug fixes
4594
4595 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4596 process.
4597
4598 * New commands
4599
4600 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4601 show print frame-arguments
4602 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4603 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4604
4605 remote put
4606 remote get
4607 remote delete
4608 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4609
4610 * New MI commands
4611
4612 -target-file-put
4613 -target-file-get
4614 -target-file-delete
4615 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4616
4617 * New remote packets
4618
4619 vFile:open:
4620 vFile:close:
4621 vFile:pread:
4622 vFile:pwrite:
4623 vFile:unlink:
4624 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4625
4626 vAttach
4627 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4628 mode.
4629
4630 vRun
4631 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4632
4633 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4634
4635 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4636 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4637 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4638
4639 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4640 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4641 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4642
4643 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4644 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4645 is not supported.
4646
4647 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4648 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4649
4650 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4651 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4652
4653 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4654
4655 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4656 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4657 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4658
4659 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4660 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4661
4662 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4663 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4664 as strings.
4665
4666 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4667 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4668 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4669
4670 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4671 iWMMXt coprocessor.
4672
4673 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4674 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4675 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4676
4677 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4678
4679 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4680
4681 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4682 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4683 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4684
4685 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4686 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4687
4688 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4689 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4690 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4691 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4692 Windows and SymbianOS).
4693
4694 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4695 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4696
4697 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4698 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4699
4700 * New commands
4701
4702 set remoteflow
4703 show remoteflow
4704 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4705 when debugging using remote targets.
4706
4707 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4708 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4709 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4710 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4711 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4712 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4713 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4714
4715 set breakpoint auto-hw
4716 show breakpoint auto-hw
4717 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4718 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4719 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4720 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4721 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4722 including "next" and "finish".
4723
4724 catch exception
4725 catch exception unhandled
4726 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4727
4728 catch assert
4729 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4730
4731 set sysroot
4732 show sysroot
4733 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4734 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4735 an alias to "set sysroot".
4736
4737 info spu
4738 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4739 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4740 architecture.
4741
4742 * New native configurations
4743
4744 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4745
4746 set tdesc filename
4747 unset tdesc filename
4748 show tdesc filename
4749 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4750 not query the target for its built-in description.
4751
4752 * New targets
4753
4754 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4755 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4756 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4757
4758 * New remote packets
4759
4760 QPassSignals:
4761 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4762 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4763
4764 qXfer:features:read:
4765 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4766 features.
4767
4768 qXfer:spu:read:
4769 qXfer:spu:write:
4770 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4771 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4772
4773 qXfer:libraries:read:
4774 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4775 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4776 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4777 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4778
4779 * Removed targets
4780
4781 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4782
4783 alpha*-*-osf1*
4784 alpha*-*-osf2*
4785 d10v-*-*
4786 hppa*-*-hiux*
4787 i[34567]86-ncr-*
4788 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4789 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4790 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4791 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4792 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4793 i[34567]86-*-sco*
4794 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4795 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4796 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4797 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4798 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4799 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4800 i[34567]86-*-isc*
4801 m68*-cisco*-*
4802 m68*-tandem-*
4803 mips*-*-pe
4804 rs6000-*-lynxos*
4805 sh*-*-pe
4806
4807 * Other removed features
4808
4809 target abug
4810 target cpu32bug
4811 target est
4812 target rom68k
4813
4814 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4815
4816 target hms
4817 target e7000
4818 target sh3
4819 target sh3e
4820
4821 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4822 H8/300.
4823
4824 target ocd
4825
4826 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4827 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4828 interfaces.
4829
4830 DWARF 1 support
4831
4832 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4833 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4834
4835 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4836
4837 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4838 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4839 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4840 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4841
4842 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4843
4844 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4845 in debugging information.
4846
4847 Scheme support
4848
4849 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4850 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4851
4852 set mips stack-arg-size
4853 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4854
4855 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4856
4857 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4858
4859 * New targets
4860
4861 Xtensa xtensa-elf
4862 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4863
4864 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4865 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4866 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4867
4868 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4869 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4870 supported.
4871
4872 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4873 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4874
4875 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4876 stub provides the required support.
4877
4878 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4879 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4880
4881 * New commands
4882
4883 set substitute-path
4884 unset substitute-path
4885 show substitute-path
4886 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4887 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4888 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4889 between compilation and debugging.
4890
4891 set trace-commands
4892 show trace-commands
4893 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4894 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4895 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4896
4897 * REMOVED features
4898
4899 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4900
4901 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4902 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4903
4904 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4905
4906 * New remote packets
4907
4908 qSupported:
4909 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4910 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4911 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4912 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4913 target.
4914
4915 qXfer:auxv:read:
4916 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4917 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4918
4919 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4920 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4921 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4922
4923 vFlashErase:
4924 vFlashWrite:
4925 vFlashDone:
4926 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4927
4928 * Removed remote packets
4929
4930 qPart:auxv:read:
4931 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4932 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4933
4934 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4935
4936 * New targets
4937
4938 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4939
4940 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4941
4942 * New commands
4943
4944 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4945 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4946
4947 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4948
4949 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4950
4951 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4952 previously saved state.
4953
4954 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4955
4956 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4957
4958 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4959 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4960
4961 info forks List forks of the user program that
4962 are available to be debugged.
4963
4964 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4965 forks of the user program that are
4966 available to be debugged.
4967
4968 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4969 that are available to be debugged (and
4970 kill the forked process).
4971
4972 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4973 that are available to be debugged (and
4974 allow the process to continue).
4975
4976 * New architecture
4977
4978 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4979
4980 * Improved Windows host support
4981
4982 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4983 native console support, and remote communications using either
4984 network sockets or serial ports.
4985
4986 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4987
4988 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4989 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4990 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4991 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4992 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4993 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4994
4995 * REMOVED features
4996
4997 The ARM rdi-share module.
4998
4999 The Netware NLM debug server.
5000
5001 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5002
5003 * New native configurations
5004
5005 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5006 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5007
5008 * New targets
5009
5010 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5011
5012 * New command line options
5013
5014 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5015 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5016 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5017 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5018 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5019 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5020 with the --command (-x) option.
5021
5022 * Deprecated commands removed
5023
5024 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5025 removed:
5026
5027 Command Replacement
5028 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5029 othernames set arm disassembler
5030 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5031 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5032 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5033 regs info registers
5034
5035 * New BSD user-level threads support
5036
5037 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5038 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5039 configurations are:
5040
5041 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5042 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5043 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5044
5045 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5046 are not yet supported.
5047
5048 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5049 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5050
5051 * REMOVED configurations and files
5052
5053 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5054 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5055 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5056
5057 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5058
5059 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5060 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5061 behavior.
5062
5063 * VAX floating point support
5064
5065 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5066
5067 * User-defined command support
5068
5069 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5070 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5071 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5072
5073 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5074
5075 * New command line option
5076
5077 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5078 debugging.
5079
5080 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5081
5082 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5083 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5084 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5085 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5086 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5087
5088 * Internationalization
5089
5090 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5091 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5092 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5093
5094 * Ada
5095
5096 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5097 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5098 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5099
5100 * New native configurations
5101
5102 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5103
5104 * Remote 'p' packet
5105
5106 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5107 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5108
5109 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5110
5111 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5112 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5113 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5114 i386 application).
5115
5116 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
5117 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5118 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5119 configurations:
5120
5121 hppa-*-hpux
5122 ia64-*-aix
5123 mips-*-irix*
5124 *-*-lynx
5125 mips-*-linux-gnu
5126 sds protocol
5127 xdr protocol
5128 powerpc bdm protocol
5129
5130 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5131 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5132
5133 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5134
5135 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5136 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5137 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5138 permanently REMOVED.
5139
5140 h8300-*-*
5141 mcore-*-*
5142 mn10300-*-*
5143 ns32k-*-*
5144 sh64-*-*
5145 v850-*-*
5146
5147 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5148
5149 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5150
5151 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5152 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5153 been fixed.
5154
5155 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5156
5157 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5158 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5159 IRIX long double values).
5160
5161 * VAX and "next"
5162
5163 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5164 command. This problem has been fixed.
5165
5166 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5167
5168 * Fix for ``many threads''
5169
5170 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5171 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5172 error message:
5173
5174 ptrace: No such process.
5175 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5176
5177 This problem has been fixed.
5178
5179 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5180
5181 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5182 GDB to dump core).
5183
5184 * New ``start'' command.
5185
5186 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
5187
5188 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5189
5190 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5191 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5192 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5193
5194 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5195 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5196 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5197 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5198 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5199 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5200 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5201 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5202 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5203
5204 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5205
5206 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5207 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5208 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5209 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5210 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5211
5212 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5213 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5214 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5215
5216 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5217
5218 * New native configurations
5219
5220 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5221 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5222 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5223 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5224 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5225 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5226 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5227
5228 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5229
5230 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5231 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5232 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5233 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5234 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5235 work, was also included.
5236
5237 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5238 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5239
5240 h8300-*-*
5241 mcore-*-*
5242 mn10300-*-*
5243 ns32k-*-*
5244 sh64-*-*
5245 v850-*-*
5246 xstormy16-*-*
5247
5248 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5249 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5250
5251 * REMOVED configurations and files
5252
5253 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5254 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5255 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5256 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5257 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5258 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5259 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5260 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5261 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5262 sonymips mips-sony-*
5263 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5264
5265 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5266
5267 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5268
5269 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5270 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5271 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5272 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5273 with GDB".
5274
5275 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5276
5277 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5278 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5279 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5280 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5281 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5282 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5283 are created.
5284
5285 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5286
5287 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5288
5289 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5290 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5291 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5292
5293 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5294
5295 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5296 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5297
5298 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5299
5300 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5301 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5302 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5303
5304 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5305
5306 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5307 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5308
5309 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5310
5311 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5312 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5313 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5314
5315 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5316
5317 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5318 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5319 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5320
5321 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5322
5323 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5324
5325 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5326 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5327
5328 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5329
5330 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5331 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5332 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5333 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5334
5335 * Revised SPARC target
5336
5337 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5338 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5339 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5340 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5341 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5342
5343 * New C++ demangler
5344
5345 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5346 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5347 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5348 programs.
5349
5350 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5351
5352 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5353 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5354 encountered these.
5355
5356 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5357
5358 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5359 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5360 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5361 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5362 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5363 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5364 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5365 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5366 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5367
5368 * New native configurations
5369
5370 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5371 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5372 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5373 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5374 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5375
5376 * New debugging protocols
5377
5378 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5379
5380 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5381
5382 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5383 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5384 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5385
5386 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5387
5388 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5389 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5390 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5391 permanently REMOVED.
5392
5393 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5394 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5395 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5396 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5397 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5398 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5399 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5400 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5401 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5402 sonymips mips-sony-*
5403 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5404
5405 * REMOVED configurations and files
5406
5407 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5408 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5409 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5410 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5411 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5412 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5413 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5414 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5415 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5416 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5417 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5418 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5419 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5420 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5421 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5422 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5423 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5424
5425 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5426
5427 * Objective-C
5428
5429 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5430 integrated into GDB.
5431
5432 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5433
5434 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5435 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5436 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5437 backtraces.
5438
5439 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5440 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5441 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5442
5443 * Hosted file I/O.
5444
5445 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5446 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5447 remote protocol documentation for details.
5448
5449 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5450
5451 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5452 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5453 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5454 ppc32 on ppc64).
5455
5456 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5457
5458 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5459 per-thread variables.
5460
5461 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5462
5463 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5464 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5465
5466 * Separate debug info.
5467
5468 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5469 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5470 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5471 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5472 and optional debug files.
5473
5474 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5475
5476 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5477 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5478 debugger.
5479
5480 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5481 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5482
5483 * Java
5484
5485 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5486 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5487 considered "useable".
5488
5489 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5490
5491 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5492 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5493 kernel.
5494
5495 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5496
5497 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5498 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5499
5500 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5501
5502 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5503 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5504 command.
5505
5506 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5507
5508 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5509 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5510
5511 * Profiling support
5512
5513 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5514 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5515 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5516 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5517 data, for more informative profiling results.
5518
5519 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5520
5521 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5522 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5523 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5524
5525 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5526 removed.
5527
5528 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5529 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5530 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5531 in a subsequent -var-update.
5532
5533 * New native configurations.
5534
5535 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5536
5537 * Multi-arched targets.
5538
5539 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5540 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5541
5542 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5543
5544 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5545 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5546 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5547 permanently REMOVED.
5548
5549 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5550 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5551 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5552 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5553 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5554 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5555 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5556 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5557 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5558 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5559 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5560 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5561
5562 * REMOVED configurations and files
5563
5564 V850EA ISA
5565 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5566 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5567 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5568 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5569 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5570 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5571 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5572 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5573 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5574 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5575 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5576 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5577 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5578
5579 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5580
5581 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5582 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5583 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5584 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5585 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5586
5587 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5588
5589 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5590
5591 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5592 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5593 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5594 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5595 shared libs like mad''.
5596
5597 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5598
5599 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5600 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5601 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5602 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5603
5604 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5605
5606 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5607 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5608 they expand.
5609
5610 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5611 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5612
5613 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5614 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5615
5616 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5617 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5618 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5619 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5620
5621 * Multi-arched targets.
5622
5623 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5624 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5625 NEC V850 v850-*-*
5626 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5627 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5628 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5629
5630 * New targets.
5631
5632 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5633
5634
5635 * New native configurations
5636
5637 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5638 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5639 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5640 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5641
5642 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5643
5644 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5645 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5646 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5647 permanently REMOVED.
5648
5649 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5650 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5651 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5652 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5653 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5654 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5655 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5656 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5657 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5658 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5659 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5660 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5661 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5662
5663 * OBSOLETE languages
5664
5665 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5666
5667 * REMOVED configurations and files
5668
5669 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5670 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5671 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5672 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5673 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5674
5675 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5676
5677 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5678
5679 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5680 commands. The default is 1024.
5681
5682 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5683
5684 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5685
5686 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5687
5688 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5689 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5690 from a file into memory (restore).
5691
5692 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5693
5694 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5695 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5696 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5697
5698 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5699
5700 * New targets.
5701
5702 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5703
5704 * Bug fixes
5705
5706 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5707 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5708 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5709
5710 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5711 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5712 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5713
5714 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5715 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5716 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5717
5718 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5719 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5720 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5721
5722 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5723
5724 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5725
5726 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5727 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5728 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5729 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5730 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5731 (notably embedded) targets.
5732
5733 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5734
5735 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5736 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5737 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5738 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5739
5740 * New command line option
5741
5742 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5743
5744 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5745
5746 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5747 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5748 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5749 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5750 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5751 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5752 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5753 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5754 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5755 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5756
5757 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5758
5759 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5760 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5761
5762 * New native configurations
5763
5764 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5765 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5766 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5767 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5768
5769 * New targets
5770
5771 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5772
5773 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5774
5775 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5776 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5777 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5778 permanently REMOVED.
5779
5780 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5781 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5782 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5783 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5784 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5785
5786 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5787
5788 * REMOVED configurations and files
5789
5790 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5791 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5792 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5793 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5794 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5795 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5796 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5797 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5798 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5799 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5800 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5801 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5802 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5803
5804 * Changes to command line processing
5805
5806 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5807 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5808
5809 * Changes to key bindings
5810
5811 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5812
5813 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5814
5815 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5816
5817 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5818 corrupted.
5819
5820 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5821
5822 Numerous documentation fixes.
5823
5824 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5825
5826 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5827
5828 * New native configurations
5829
5830 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5831 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5832 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5833 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5834 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5835 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5836
5837 * New targets
5838
5839 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5840 CRIS cris-axis
5841 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5842
5843 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5844
5845 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5846 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5847 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5848 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5849 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5850 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5851 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5852 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5853 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5854 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5855 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5856 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5857 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5858 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5859
5860 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5861 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5862
5863 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5864 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5865 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5866 permanently REMOVED.
5867
5868 * REMOVED configurations and files
5869
5870 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5871 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5872 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5873 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5874 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5875 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5876
5877 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5878
5879 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5880 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5881 present.
5882
5883 * Other news:
5884
5885 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5886
5887 * The MI enabled by default.
5888
5889 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5890 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5891 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5892 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5893 which is now deprecated.
5894
5895 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5896
5897 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5898 main features are supported:
5899
5900 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5901
5902 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5903 extension;
5904
5905 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5906
5907 - a Pascal expression parser.
5908
5909 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5910
5911 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5912
5913 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5914
5915 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5916 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5917
5918 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5919
5920 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5921
5922 * Changes in completion.
5923
5924 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5925 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5926 users expect at the shell prompt.
5927
5928 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5929 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5930 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5931 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5932 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5933 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5934 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5935
5936 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5937
5938 * New platform-independent commands:
5939
5940 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5941 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5942 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5943
5944 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5945
5946 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5947 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5948 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5949
5950 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5951
5952 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5953 multi-threaded programs though.
5954
5955 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5956
5957 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5958
5959 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5960 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5961 supported.)
5962
5963 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5964
5965 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5966 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5967 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5968 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5969 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5970 registers.
5971
5972 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5973 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5974 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5975
5976 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5977
5978 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5979 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5980
5981 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5982 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5983 IDT.
5984
5985 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5986 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5987 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5988 a given linear address.
5989
5990 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5991 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5992 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5993
5994 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5995
5996 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5997
5998 * Changes in documentation.
5999
6000 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6001 Documentation License.
6002
6003 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6004 manual.
6005
6006 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6007
6008 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6009 manual.
6010
6011 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6012 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6013 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6014
6015 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6016
6017 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6018 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6019 contents of this file.
6020
6021 * gdba.el deleted
6022
6023 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6024
6025 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6026
6027 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6028
6029 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6030 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6031 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6032 greater level of detail.
6033
6034 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6035
6036 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6037 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6038 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6039 written.
6040
6041 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6042
6043 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6044 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6045 machines ``out of the box''.
6046
6047 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6048 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6049 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6050 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6051 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6052
6053 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6054 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6055 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6056 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6057 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6058
6059 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6060 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6061 also works.
6062
6063 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6064 GDB.
6065
6066 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6067 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6068 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6069 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6070
6071 * New native configurations
6072
6073 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6074 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6075
6076 * New targets
6077
6078 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6079 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6080 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6081 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6082
6083 * OBSOLETE configurations
6084
6085 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6086 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6087 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6088 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6089 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6090
6091 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6092 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6093 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6094 be permanently REMOVED.
6095
6096 * Gould support removed
6097
6098 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6099
6100 * New features for SVR4
6101
6102 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6103 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6104 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6105
6106 * Many C++ enhancements
6107
6108 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6109 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6110
6111 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6112
6113 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6114 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6115 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6116 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6117
6118 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6119 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6120
6121 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6122
6123 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6124 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6125 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6126
6127 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6128 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6129
6130 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6131
6132 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6133 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6134 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6135
6136 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6137
6138 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6139 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6140 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6141
6142 * ``apropos'' command added.
6143
6144 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6145 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6146 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6147
6148 * New MI interface
6149
6150 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6151 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6152 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6153 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6154 enabled by configuring with:
6155
6156 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6157
6158 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6159
6160 * New native configurations
6161
6162 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6163 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6164 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6165
6166 * New targets
6167
6168 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6169 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6170 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6171
6172 * OBSOLETE configurations
6173
6174 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6175
6176 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6177 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6178 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6179 be permanently REMOVED.
6180
6181 * ANSI/ISO C
6182
6183 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6184 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6185 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6186 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6187 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6188 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6189 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6190 already.
6191
6192 * Readline 2.2
6193
6194 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6195
6196 * set extension-language
6197
6198 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6199 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6200 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6201 set extension-language .c c++
6202 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6203 and their associated languages.
6204
6205 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6206
6207 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6208 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6209 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6210
6211 set processor NAME
6212
6213 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6214 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6215
6216 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6217 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6218 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6219 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6220 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6221 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6222 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6223 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6224 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6225 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6226 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6227
6228 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6229 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6230 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6231 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6232
6233 * HP-UX support
6234
6235 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6236 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6237 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6238 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6239 for xdb and dbx commands.
6240
6241 * Catchpoints
6242
6243 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6244 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6245 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6246
6247 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6248 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6249 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6250
6251 * Debugging across forks
6252
6253 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6254 in the inferior.
6255
6256 * TUI
6257
6258 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6259 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6260 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6261
6262 * GDB remote protocol additions
6263
6264 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6265 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6266 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6267 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6268
6269 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6270 full 64-bit address. The command
6271
6272 set remoteaddresssize 32
6273
6274 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6275 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6276 will be discarded.
6277
6278 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6279 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6280
6281 maint packet heythere
6282
6283 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6284 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6285 time.
6286
6287 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6288 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6289 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6290
6291 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6292
6293 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6294 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6295 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6296
6297 * mask-address variable for Mips
6298
6299 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6300 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6301 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6302
6303 * Higher serial baud rates
6304
6305 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6306 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6307 to achieve all of these rates.)
6308
6309 * i960 simulator
6310
6311 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6312 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6313
6314
6315 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6316
6317 * New native configurations
6318
6319 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6320 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6321 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6322 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6323 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6324 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6325 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6326
6327 * New targets
6328
6329 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6330 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6331 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6332 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6333 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6334 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6335 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6336 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6337 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6338 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6339 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6340
6341 * New debugging protocols
6342
6343 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6344 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6345 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6346 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6347 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6348 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6349
6350 * DWARF 2
6351
6352 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6353 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6354 information.
6355
6356 * Java frontend
6357
6358 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6359 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6360
6361 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6362
6363 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6364 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6365 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6366
6367 * Live range splitting
6368
6369 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6370 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6371 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6372
6373 * Hurd support
6374
6375 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6376 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6377
6378 * ARM Thumb support
6379
6380 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6381 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6382 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6383 accordingly.
6384
6385 * MIPS16 support
6386
6387 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6388 instruction set.
6389
6390 * Overlay support
6391
6392 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6393 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6394 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6395 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6396 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6397 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6398
6399 * info symbol
6400
6401 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6402 the symbol at the specified address.
6403
6404 * Trace support
6405
6406 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6407 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6408 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6409 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6410 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6411
6412 * MIPS simulator
6413
6414 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6415 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6416 of most MIPS variants.
6417
6418 * Sparc simulator
6419
6420 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6421 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6422 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6423
6424 * set architecture
6425
6426 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6427 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6428 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6429 the possible architectures.
6430
6431 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6432
6433 * New native configurations
6434
6435 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6436 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6437 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6438 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6439 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6440 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6441
6442 * New targets
6443
6444 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6445 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6446 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6447 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6448 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6449 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
6450 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6451
6452 * PowerPC simulator
6453
6454 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6455 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6456 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6457 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6458 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6459
6460 * Solaris 2.5
6461
6462 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6463
6464 * Windows 95/NT native
6465
6466 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6467 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6468 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6469 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6470 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6471
6472 * dont-repeat command
6473
6474 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6475 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6476 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6477 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6478
6479 * Send break instead of ^C
6480
6481 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6482 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6483 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6484
6485 * Remote protocol timeout
6486
6487 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6488 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6489 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6490
6491 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6492
6493 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6494 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6495 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6496 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6497 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6498
6499 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6500 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6501 automatically on hpux10.
6502
6503 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6504
6505 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6506
6507 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6508
6509 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6510 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6511 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6512 every character. The default value is 1050.
6513
6514 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6515
6516 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6517 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6518 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6519 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6520 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6521 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6522
6523 * Speedups for remote debugging
6524
6525 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6526 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6527 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6528
6529 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6530
6531 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6532 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6533
6534 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6535
6536 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6537
6538 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6539 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6540
6541 * Remote targets use caching
6542
6543 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6544 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6545 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6546 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6547 off' turns the the data cache off.
6548
6549 * Remote targets may have threads
6550
6551 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6552 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6553 gdb/remote.c for details.
6554
6555 * NetROM support
6556
6557 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6558 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6559 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6560 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6561 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6562 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6563 sequence is something like
6564
6565 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6566 load <prog>
6567 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6568
6569 * Macintosh host
6570
6571 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6572 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6573 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6574 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6575 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6576 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6577 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6578 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6579
6580 * Autoconf
6581
6582 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6583 but does simplify configuration and building.
6584
6585 * hpux10
6586
6587 GDB now supports hpux10.
6588
6589 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6590
6591 * New native configurations
6592
6593 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6594 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6595 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6596 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6597
6598 * New targets
6599
6600 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6601 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6602 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6603 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6604 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6605
6606 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6607
6608 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6609 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6610 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6611 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6612 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6613
6614 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6615
6616 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6617 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6618 trivial example:
6619 define adder
6620 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6621
6622 To execute the command use:
6623 adder 1 2 3
6624
6625 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6626 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6627 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6628
6629 * New `if' and `while' commands
6630
6631 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6632 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6633 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6634 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6635 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6636 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6637 if the expression is zero.
6638
6639 * Fortran source language mode
6640
6641 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6642 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6643 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6644 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6645 Fortran compilers.
6646
6647 * Better HPUX support
6648
6649 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6650 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6651 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6652 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6653 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6654
6655 adb -w a.out
6656 __dld_flags?W 0x5
6657 control-d
6658
6659 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6660 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6661
6662 adb -w a.out
6663 __dld_flags?W 0x4
6664 control-d
6665
6666 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6667 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6668 external linkage.
6669
6670 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6671 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6672
6673 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6674
6675 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6676 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6677 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6678 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6679 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6680 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6681
6682 * New DOS host serial code
6683
6684 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6685 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6686 a PC's serial port.
6687
6688 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6689
6690 * New "complete" command
6691
6692 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6693 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6694
6695 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6696
6697 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6698 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6699
6700 * Breakpoint hit counts
6701
6702 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6703 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6704 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6705 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6706 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6707 that breakpoint.
6708
6709 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6710
6711 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6712 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6713 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6714
6715 * Shared library breakpoints
6716
6717 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6718 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6719
6720 * Hardware watchpoints
6721
6722 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6723 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6724
6725 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6726
6727 * Annotations
6728
6729 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6730 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6731
6732 * Improved Irix 5 support
6733
6734 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6735
6736 * Improved HPPA support
6737
6738 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6739
6740 * New native configurations
6741
6742 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6743 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6744 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6745 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6746
6747 * New targets
6748
6749 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6750 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6751 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6752
6753 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6754
6755 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6756 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6757
6758 * Fixes
6759
6760 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6761 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6762
6763 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6764
6765 * Irix 5 is now supported
6766
6767 * HPPA support
6768
6769 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6770 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6771 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6772 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6773 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6774
6775
6776 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6777
6778 * User visible changes:
6779
6780 * Remote Debugging
6781
6782 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6783 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6784 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6785 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6786 debugging info for the mips target).
6787
6788 * DEC Alpha native support
6789
6790 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6791 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6792 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6793 Alpha-specific notes.
6794
6795 * Preliminary thread implementation
6796
6797 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6798
6799 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6800
6801 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6802 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6803 for details).
6804
6805 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6806
6807 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6808 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6809 call methods, ...etc.
6810
6811 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6812
6813 * User visible changes:
6814
6815 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6816 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6817 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6818 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6819
6820 Filename completion now works.
6821
6822 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6823 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6824 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6825
6826 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6827 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6828 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6829 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6830 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6831
6832 * DEC alpha support
6833
6834 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6835 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6836
6837
6838 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6839
6840 * Testsuite
6841
6842 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6843 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6844 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6845
6846 * C++ demangling
6847
6848 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6849 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6850 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6851 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6852 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6853
6854 * Simulators
6855
6856 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6857 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6858 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6859
6860 * New targets supported
6861
6862 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6863 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6864 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6865 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6866 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6867
6868 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6869 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6870 GO32 memory extender.
6871
6872 * New remote protocols
6873
6874 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6875
6876 * New source languages supported
6877
6878 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6879 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6880 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6881
6882
6883 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6884
6885 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6886
6887 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6888 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6889 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6890 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6891 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6892 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6893
6894 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6895
6896 * Faster and better demangling
6897
6898 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6899 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6900 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6901 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6902 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6903 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6904 symbol lookups.
6905
6906 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6907 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6908 compiler does not actually implement.
6909
6910 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6911
6912 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6913 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6914 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6915 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6916 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6917 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6918 fix.
6919
6920 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6921 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6922
6923 * Improved configure script
6924
6925 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6926 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6927 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6928 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6929
6930 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6931 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6932 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6933 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6934 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6935 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6936
6937 * Documentation improvements
6938
6939 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6940 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6941 before submitting changes.
6942
6943 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6944 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6945 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6946 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6947 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6948
6949 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6950 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6951 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6952 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6953 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6954 around this problem.
6955
6956 * New features
6957
6958 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6959 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6960 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6961 the target program.
6962
6963 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6964 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6965
6966 * New native hosts supported
6967
6968 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6969 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6970
6971 * New targets supported
6972
6973 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6974
6975 * New file formats supported
6976
6977 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6978 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6979
6980 * Major bug fixes
6981
6982 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6983
6984 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6985 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6986
6987 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6988 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6989 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6990
6991 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6992 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6993
6994 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6995 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6996 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6997 libraries.
6998
6999 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7000 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7001 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7002 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7003 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7004
7005 * Internal improvements
7006
7007 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7008 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7009
7010 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7011 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7012 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7013 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7014 shared code that handles any of them.
7015
7016 * New command line options
7017
7018 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7019
7020 * Mmalloc licensing
7021
7022 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7023 General Public License.
7024
7025 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7026
7027 * Host/native/target split
7028
7029 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7030 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7031 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7032 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7033 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7034
7035 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7036 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7037 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7038 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7039 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7040 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7041 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7042
7043 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7044 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7045 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7046
7047 * New hosts supported
7048
7049 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7050 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7051 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7052
7053 * New targets supported
7054
7055 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7056 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7057
7058 * New native hosts supported
7059
7060 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7061 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7062 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7063
7064 * New file formats supported
7065
7066 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7067 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7068 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7069
7070 * New commands
7071
7072 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7073 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7074 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7075
7076 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7077
7078 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7079 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7080 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7081 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7082
7083 * C++ improvements
7084
7085 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7086 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7087 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7088
7089 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7090
7091 * Major bug fixes
7092
7093 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7094 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7095 by the compiler.
7096
7097 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7098 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7099
7100 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7101 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7102 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7103 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7104 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7105 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7106
7107 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7108 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7109 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7110 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7111
7112 * AMD 29k support
7113
7114 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7115 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7116 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7117 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7118 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7119
7120 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7121 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7122 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7123 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7124
7125 * Remote interfaces
7126
7127 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7128 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7129 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7130 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7131 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7132 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7133 each instruction being stepped through.
7134
7135 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7136 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7137
7138 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7139 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7140 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7141 processor with a serial port.
7142
7143 * Configuration
7144
7145 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7146 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7147 supported, and what files each one uses.
7148
7149 * Library changes
7150
7151 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7152 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7153 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7154 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7155
7156 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7157 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7158 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7159 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7160
7161 * Documentation
7162
7163 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7164 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7165 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7166 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7167 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7168 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7169
7170 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7171
7172
7173 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7174
7175 * Better support for C++ function names
7176
7177 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7178 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7179 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7180 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7181 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7182
7183 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7184 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7185 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7186 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7187 for the list of formats.
7188
7189 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7190
7191 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7192 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7193 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7194 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
7195 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7196 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7197 this problem.)
7198
7199 * New 'maintenance' command
7200
7201 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7202 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7203 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7204
7205 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7206 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7207 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7208 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7209 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7210 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7211
7212 The following commands are new:
7213
7214 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7215 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7216 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7217
7218 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7219
7220 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7221 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7222 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7223 read after argv processing.
7224
7225 * New hosts supported
7226
7227 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7228
7229 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7230
7231 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7232 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7233 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7234 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7235 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7236 It costs extra.
7237
7238 * New targets supported
7239
7240 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7241
7242 * More smarts about finding #include files
7243
7244 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7245 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7246 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7247 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7248 the one that contains your sources.
7249
7250 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7251 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7252 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7253
7254 * Interesting infernals change
7255
7256 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7257 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7258 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7259 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7260
7261 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7262
7263 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7264 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7265 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7266
7267 See the ChangeLog for details.
7268
7269 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7270
7271 * New machines supported (host and target)
7272
7273 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7274
7275 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7276
7277 * New malloc package
7278
7279 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7280 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
7281 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7282 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7283 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7284 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7285
7286 * info proc
7287
7288 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7289 'help info proc' for details.
7290
7291 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7292
7293 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7294 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7295 possible.
7296
7297 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7298
7299 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7300 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7301 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7302 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7303 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7304 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7305
7306 * Cross byte order fixes
7307
7308 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7309 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7310
7311 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7312
7313 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7314 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7315 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7316 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7317 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7318 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7319 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7320 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7321 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7322 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7323
7324 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7325 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7326 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7327 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7328
7329 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7330 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7331 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7332 use is:
7333
7334 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7335
7336 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7337 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7338 shared across multiple host platforms.
7339
7340 * longjmp() handling
7341
7342 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7343 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7344 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7345 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7346
7347 * Solaris 2.0
7348
7349 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7350 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7351 reading symbols.
7352
7353 * Bug fixes
7354
7355 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7356 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7357 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7358
7359 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7360
7361 * New machines supported (host and target)
7362
7363 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7364 (except core files)
7365 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7366 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7367
7368 * New machines supported (target)
7369
7370 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7371
7372 * C++ support
7373
7374 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7375 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7376 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7377
7378 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7379 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7380 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7381 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7382 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7383 released.
7384
7385 * New features for SVR4
7386
7387 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7388 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7389 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7390
7391 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7392 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7393 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7394
7395 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7396 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7397
7398 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7399
7400 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7401 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7402 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7403 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7404 same code linked statically.
7405
7406 * New Getopt
7407
7408 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7409 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7410 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7411 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7412 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7413 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7414
7415 * Bugs fixed
7416
7417 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7418 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7419 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7420
7421
7422 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7423
7424 * New machines supported (host and target)
7425
7426 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7427 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7428 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7429
7430 * Almost SCO Unix support
7431
7432 We had hoped to support:
7433 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7434 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7435 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7436 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7437
7438 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7439
7440 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7441 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7442 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7443 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7444 reqired (if any).
7445
7446 * New Readline
7447
7448 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7449 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7450 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7451
7452 * Bugs fixed
7453
7454 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7455 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7456 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7457
7458 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7459
7460 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7461 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7462 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7463
7464 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7465 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7466 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7467 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7468 version 2.
7469
7470 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7471 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7472 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7473 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7474 situation somewhat.
7475
7476 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7477 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7478 methods.
7479
7480 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7481 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7482 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7483
7484
7485 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7486
7487 * Improved configuration
7488
7489 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7490 Porting BFD is simpler.
7491
7492 * Stepping improved
7493
7494 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7495 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7496 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7497 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7498
7499 * Bug fixing
7500
7501 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7502
7503 * New host supported (not target)
7504
7505 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7506
7507
7508 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7509
7510 * Multiple source language support
7511
7512 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7513 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7514 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7515 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7516 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7517 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7518
7519 * GDB and Modula-2
7520
7521 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7522 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7523 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7524 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7525
7526 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7527 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7528 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7529
7530 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7531 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7532
7533 * set write on/off
7534
7535 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7536 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7537 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7538 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7539 effect immediately.
7540
7541 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7542
7543 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7544 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7545 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7546 examining core files.
7547
7548 * set listsize
7549
7550 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7551 The default is 10.
7552
7553 * New machines supported (host and target)
7554
7555 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7556 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7557 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7558
7559 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7560
7561 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7562
7563 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7564
7565 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7566 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7567 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7568
7569 * New remote interfaces
7570
7571 AMD 29000 Adapt
7572 AMD 29000 Minimon
7573
7574
7575 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7576
7577 * New Facilities
7578
7579 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7580
7581 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7582 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7583 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7584 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7585 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7586 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7587 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7588 stub on the target system.
7589
7590 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7591
7592 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7593 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7594 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7595
7596 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7597 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7598
7599
7600 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7601
7602 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7603 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7604
7605 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7606 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7607 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7608
7609 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7610 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7611 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7612 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7613
7614 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7615 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7616 it is already running. Default is ON.
7617
7618 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7619 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7620 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7621 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7622 Default is ON.
7623
7624 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7625 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7626 or the value of the environment variable
7627 GDBHISTFILE.
7628
7629 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7630 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7631 HISTSIZE.
7632
7633 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7634 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7635 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7636
7637 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7638 history expansion will be performed on
7639 command line input. The default is OFF.
7640
7641 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7642 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7643 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7644
7645 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7646 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7647 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7648 variable TERM.
7649
7650 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7651 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7652 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7653 variable TERM.
7654
7655 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7656 ``set width'' instead.
7657
7658 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7659 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7660 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7661 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7662
7663 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7664 is OFF.
7665
7666 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7667 "raw" form if off.
7668
7669 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7670 like instructions.
7671
7672 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7673
7674
7675 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7676
7677 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7678 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7679 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7680 window.
7681
7682
7683 * Support for Shared Libraries
7684
7685 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7686 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7687 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7688 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7689 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7690 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7691 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7692 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7693
7694 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7695 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7696 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7697
7698 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7699
7700
7701 * Watchpoints
7702
7703 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7704 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7705 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7706 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7707 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7708 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7709
7710 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7711
7712 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7713
7714 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7715 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7716 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7717
7718
7719 * C++ multiple inheritance
7720
7721 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7722 for C++ programs.
7723
7724 * C++ exception handling
7725
7726 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7727 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7728 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7729 handler's context).
7730
7731 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7732 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7733 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7734
7735 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7736 current stack frame.
7737
7738
7739 * Minor command changes
7740
7741 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7742 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7743 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7744
7745 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7746 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7747 frames without printing.
7748
7749 * New directory command
7750
7751 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7752 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7753 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7754 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7755 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7756
7757 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7758
7759 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7760 for more details.
7761
7762 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7763 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7764 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7765 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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