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