Catch exception on solib_svr4_r_ldsomap
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.9
5
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6* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
7 cpu information :
8 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
9
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10* GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
11 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
12 remote serial I/O.
13
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14* The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
15 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
16 and may include things like its command line arguments.
17
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18* Python Scripting
19
20 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
21 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
22 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
23
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24* New commands
25
26maint print symbol-cache
27 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
28
29maint print symbol-cache-statistics
30 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
31
32maint flush-symbol-cache
33 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
34
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35record btrace bts
36record bts
37 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
38
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39* New options
40
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41set max-completions
42show max-completions
43 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
44 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
45 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
46 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
47
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48maint set symbol-cache-size
49maint show symbol-cache-size
50 Control the size of the symbol cache.
51
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52set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
53 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
54 BTS format.
55 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
56 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
57
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58* The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
59 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
60
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61* Python/Guile scripting
62
63 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
64 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
65
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66* New remote packets
67
68qXfer:btrace-conf:read
69 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
70
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71Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
72 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
73
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74swbreak stop reason
75 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
76 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
77 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
78 mode operation.
79
80hwbreak stop reason
81 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
82 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
83
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84vFile:fstat:
85 Return information about files on the remote system.
86
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87* The info record command now shows the recording format and the
88 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
89 the btrace record target.
90 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
91
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92* GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
93 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
94
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95* GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
96 targets.
97
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98* Removed targets and native configurations
99
100HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
101Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
102
3b2f13ff 103*** Changes in GDB 7.9
919b9a93 104
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105* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
106
5f3b99cf 107* Python Scripting
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108
109 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
110 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
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111 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
112 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
a0be3e44 113 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
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114 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
115 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
86e4ed39 116 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
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117 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
118 selecting a new file to debug.
02be9a71 119 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
6dddd6a5 120 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
5f3b99cf 121
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122 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
123 inferior.
124
125 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
126 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
127 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
128 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
129
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130* New Python-based convenience functions:
131
132 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
133 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
134 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
135 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
136
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137* GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
138 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
139 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
140 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
141 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
142 interface with this new feature are:
143
144 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
145 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
146
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147* New commands
148
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149demangle [-l language] [--] name
150 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
151 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
152 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
153 as "maint demangler-warning".
154
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155queue-signal signal-name-or-number
156 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
157
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158add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
159 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
160 scripts.
161
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162maint print user-registers
163 List all currently available "user" registers.
164
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165compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
166 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
167 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
168
169compile file [-r|-raw] filename
170 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
171 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
172 provided.
173
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174* On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
175 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
176 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
177 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
178 at resume time.
179
180* Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
181 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
182 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
183 switched threads meanwhile.
184
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185* "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
186
187 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
188 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
189 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
190 is now the default mode.
191
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192* New options
193
194set debug symbol-lookup
195show debug symbol-lookup
196 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
197
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198* MI changes
199
200 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
201 inferiors that have exited.
202
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203* New targets
204
205MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
206
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207* Removed targets
208
209Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
210
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211Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
212SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
213SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
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214VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
215VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
3831839c 216
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217* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
218 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
219 its alias "share", instead.
220
919b9a93 221*** Changes in GDB 7.8
e9475ead 222
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223* New command line options
224
225-D data-directory
226 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
227
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228* GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
229 as specified in ISO C99.
230
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231* The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
232 with or without disassembly.
b7bba001 233
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234* Guile scripting
235
236 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
237 available is determined at configure time.
238 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
239 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
240
241* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
242
243guile [code]
244gu [code]
245 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
246
247guile-repl
248gr
249 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
250
251info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
252 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
253
254* The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
255 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
256
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257* New options
258
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259set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
260show print symbol-loading
261 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
262 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
263 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
264 becomes less useful.
265
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266set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
267show guile print-stack
268 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
269
270set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
271show auto-load guile-scripts
272 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
273
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274maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
275maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
276 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
277 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
278 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
279 usage of this option.
280
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281set auto-connect-native-target
282
283 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
284 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
285 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
286
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287set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
288show record btrace replay-memory-access
289 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
290
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291maint set target-async (on|off)
292maint show target-async
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293 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
294 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
329ea579 295 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
5784b3ca 296 occurring only in synchronous mode.
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297
298set mi-async (on|off)
299show mi-async
300 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
301 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
302
303* "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
304 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
305
306* Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
307 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
308 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
309 "set target-async on" command.
310
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311* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
312
313 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
314 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
315 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
316 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
317 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
318
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319* The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
320 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
321 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
322
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323* The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
324 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
325 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
326 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
327 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
328 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
329 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
330
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331* The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
332 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
333
066ce621 334* The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
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335 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
336 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
066ce621 337
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338* The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
339 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
340 memory or registers.
341
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342* The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
343
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344* The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
345 remote. It now works with all targets.
346
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347* All native targets are now consistently called "native".
348 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
349 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
350 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
351 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
352 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
353 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
354 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
355 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
356 target-stack".
357
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358* The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
359 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
360 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
361
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362* GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
363
364* Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
365 Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers
366 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
367
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368* New remote packets
369
370qXfer:btrace:read's annex
371 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
372 branch trace incrementally.
373
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374* Python Scripting
375
376 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
377 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
378 available.
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379 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
380 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
381 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
382 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
383 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
f7bd0f78 384
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385* New targets
386PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
387
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388* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
389 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
390 its alias "share", instead.
391
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392* The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
393 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
394 instead.
395
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396* MI changes
397
398 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
399 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
400 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
401 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
402 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
403 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
404 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
405 commands and CLI execution commands.
406
b7bba001 407*** Changes in GDB 7.7
2d450646 408
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409* Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
410 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
411 recording has been added.
412
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413* GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
414
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415* GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
416 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
417
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418* New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
419 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
420 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
421 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
422 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
423 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
424 "void".
425
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426* The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
427
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428* The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
429
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430* GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
431 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
432 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
433 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
434
435 (gdb) p $rax
436 $1 = <not saved>
437
438 (gdb) info registers rax
439 rax <not saved>
440
441 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
442 "*value not available*".
443
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444* New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
445 to binaries.
446
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447* Python scripting
448
449 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
f76c27b5 450 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
bc79de95 451 ** Line tables representation has been added.
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452 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
453 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
c0d48811 454 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1e611234 455
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456* New targets
457
458Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
459Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
42059f0e 460Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
a1217d97 461
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462* Removed native configurations
463
464Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
465been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
466
467arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
468i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
469i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
470i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
471m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
472sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
473vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
474
bd712aed 475* New commands:
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476catch rethrow
477 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
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478maint check-psymtabs
479 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
480maint check-symtabs
481 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
482maint expand-symtabs
483 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
b340913d 484
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485show configuration
486 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
487
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488maint set|show per-command
489maint set|show per-command space
490maint set|show per-command time
491maint set|show per-command symtab
492 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
493
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494remove-symbol-file FILENAME
495remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
496 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
497 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
498 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
499
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500info exceptions
501info exceptions REGEXP
502 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
503 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
504 are listed.
505
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506* New options
507
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508set debug symfile off|on
509show debug symfile
510 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
511 symbol tables within those files
512
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513set print raw frame-arguments
514show print raw frame-arguments
515 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
516 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
517
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518set remote trace-status-packet
519show remote trace-status-packet
520 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
521
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522set debug nios2
523show debug nios2
524 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
525
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526set range-stepping
527show range-stepping
528 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
529
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530set startup-with-shell
531show startup-with-shell
532 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
533 directly.
534
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535set code-cache
536show code-cache
537 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
538 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
539
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540* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
541 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
542 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
543 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
544 "set height 0".
545
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546* The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
547 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
548 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
549
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550* New command-line options
551--configuration
552 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
553
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554* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
555 buffer in Common Trace Format.
556
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557* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
558 GDB command gcore.
559
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560* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
561
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562* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
563 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
564
565* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
566 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
567
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568* The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
569 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
570 due to an uncaught signal.
571
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572* MI changes
573
403cb6b1 574 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
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575 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
576 command, which should contain "language-option".
403cb6b1 577
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578 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
579 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
580
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581 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
582 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
583 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
584 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
585 "undefined-command-error-code".
586
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587 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
588 Trace Format now.
589
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590 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
591
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592 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
593 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
594 are displayed.
595
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596 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
597 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
598
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599 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
600 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
601 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
602
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JB
603 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
604 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
605 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
72bfa06c
JB
606 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
607 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
608 "exec-run-start-option".
5713b9b5 609
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JB
610 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
611 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
612
58d06528
JB
613 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
614 the new "info exceptions" command.
615
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JB
616* New system-wide configuration scripts
617 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
618 configuration scripts for the following systems:
619 ** ElinOS
620 ** Wind River Linux
621
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PA
622* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
623 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
624 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
625 below.
626
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YQ
627* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
628 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
629
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UW
630* On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
631 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
632 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
633
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PA
634* New remote packets
635
636vCont;r
637
638 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
639 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
640 involvemement at each single-step.
641
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GB
642qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
643 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
644 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
645 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
646 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
647 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
648 speedup.
649
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PA
650* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
651
652 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
653 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
654
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YQ
655 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
656 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
657 trace state variables.
658
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YQ
659 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
660 target.
661
6fbe845e
AB
662* New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
663 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
664
9058cc3a
TG
665* GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
666
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JB
667* The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
668 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
669 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
670 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
671
2d450646 672*** Changes in GDB 7.6
80c8d323 673
59ea5688
MM
674* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
675 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
676 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
677 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
678
679set|show record full insn-number-max
680set|show record full stop-at-limit
681set|show record full memory-query
682
683* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
684 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
685 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
686 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
687 This new recording method can be enabled using:
688
689record btrace
690
691 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
692 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
693
694* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
695 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
696 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
697
698record instruction-history prints the execution history at
699 instruction granularity
700
701record function-call-history prints the execution history at
702 function granularity
703
543bf33d
AT
704* New native configurations
705
51d66578 706ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 707FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4f4352f7 708x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 709Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 710
249729c4
JB
711* New targets
712
51d66578
MS
713ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
714ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 715Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 716x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 717Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249729c4 718
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DE
719* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
720 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
721 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
722 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
723 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
724 --data-directory command-line option.
725
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DE
726* New command line options:
727
728-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
729 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
730
e93a8774
TT
731* Removed command line options
732
733-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
734 Emacs.
735
53342f27
TT
736* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
737 type formatting.
738
451b7c33
TT
739* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
740
a72c3253
DE
741* Python scripting
742
743 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
744
d7de8e3c
TT
745 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
746
18a9fc12
TT
747 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
748
9a27f2c6
PK
749 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
750
bea883fd
SCR
751 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
752 of architecture in the Python API.
753
754 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
755 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
756
a72c3253
DE
757* New Python-based convenience functions:
758
759 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
760 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
761 ** $_strlen(str)
762 ** $_regex(str, regex)
763
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JK
764* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
765 given an argument.
766
1605ef26
TT
767* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
768 default for GCC since November 2000.
769
504b36fd
YQ
770* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
771
f2a8bc8a
YQ
772* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
773 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
774
23a80689
JB
775* New configure options
776
777--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
778 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
779 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
780 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
781 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
782 options allow the user to override that default.
393fd4c3
YQ
783--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
784 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
785 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
23a80689 786
d6b28940
TT
787* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
788
ab04a2af
TT
789catch signal
790 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
791 conditions to be attached.
792
d6b28940
TT
793maint info bfds
794 List the BFDs known to GDB.
795
8315665e
YPK
796python-interactive [command]
797pi [command]
798 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
799 and print the result of expressions.
800
801py [command]
802 "py" is a new alias for "python".
803
18a9fc12
TT
804enable type-printer [name]...
805disable type-printer [name]...
806 Enable or disable type printers.
807
aa9259cc
TS
808* Removed commands
809
810 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
811 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
812 instead.
813
53342f27
TT
814* New options
815
816set print type methods (on|off)
817show print type methods
818 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
819 The default is to show them.
820
821set print type typedefs (on|off)
822show print type typedefs
823 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
824 The default is to show them.
825
1b56eb55
JK
826set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
827show filename-display
828 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
829 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
830
e9f1758d
PA
831set trace-buffer-size
832show trace-buffer-size
833 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
834
a46c1e42
PA
835set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
836show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
837 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
838
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PA
839set debug aarch64
840show debug aarch64
841 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
842 The default is off.
843
844set debug coff-pe-read
845show debug coff-pe-read
846 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
847 exported symbols.
848
849set debug mach-o
850show debug mach-o
851 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
852 processing.
853
854set debug notification
855show debug notification
856 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
857
5b9afe8a
YQ
858* MI changes
859
860 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
861 "=cmd-param-changed".
201b4506
YQ
862 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
863 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
134a2066
YQ
864 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
865 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
866 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
82a90ccf
YQ
867 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
868 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
8de0566d
YQ
869 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
870 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d 871 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
ec83d211 872 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
62747a60
TT
873 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
874 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3fa7bf06
MG
875 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
876 library load/unload events.
f2a8bc8a
YQ
877 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
878 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
879 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
f5911ea1
HAQ
880 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
881 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
882 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
ec83d211
JK
883 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
884 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
5b9afe8a 885
608e2dbb
TT
886* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
887 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
888 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
889 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
890
f6f899bf
HAQ
891* New remote packets
892
893QTBuffer:size
894 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
895 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
896
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MM
897Qbtrace:bts
898 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
899 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
900 qSupported query.
901
902Qbtrace:off
903 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
904 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
905
906qXfer:btrace:read
907 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
908 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
909
80c8d323 910*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 911
1b3371b1
L
912* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
913 for more x32 ABI info.
914
d0e64392
MR
915* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
916
4cc0665f
MR
917* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
918
85d4a676
SS
919* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
920 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
921 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
922 "info os files" lists file descriptors
923 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
924 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
925 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
926 "info os msg" lists message queues
927 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
928
55aa24fb
SDJ
929* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
930 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
931 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
932 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
933 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
934 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
935
72508ac0
PO
936* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
937 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
938 record/replay support.
939
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DE
940* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
941
4795f398
DE
942* Python scripting
943
7d74f244
DE
944 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
945 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
946
4795f398
DE
947 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
948
50897289
TT
949 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
950 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
951
64e7d9dd
TT
952 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
953
954 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
955 the source at which the symbol was defined.
956
f0823d2c
TT
957 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
958 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
959 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
960 symbol's value.
961
7b282c5a
SCR
962 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
963 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
964
a20ee7a4
SCR
965 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
966 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
967 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
968
7efc75aa
SCR
969 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
970 object associated with a PC value.
971
ee0bf529
SCR
972 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
973 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
974
a766d390
DE
975* Go language support.
976 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
977 language.
978
e0f9f062
DE
979* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
980 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
981
217bff3e
JK
982* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
983 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
984
cafec441
TT
985* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
986 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
987 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
988 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
989 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
990 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
991
4aac40c8
TT
992* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
993 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
994 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
995 build/libcpp/expr.c.
996
d99bd577
UW
997* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
998 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
999
53fe1783
GB
1000* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
1001 since December 2007.
1002
e41eec66
JB
1003* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
1004 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
1005 command does. For instance:
1006
1007 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
1008
1009 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
1010 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
1011 created, using the "condition" command.
1012
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YQ
1013* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
1014 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
1015
481860b3
GB
1016* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
1017
1018* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
1019 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
1020 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
e615022a
DE
1021 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
1022 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
1023 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
1024 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
1025 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 1026
156942c7
DE
1027 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
1028 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
1029 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
1030 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
1031 the .gdb_index section.
1032
927fbba6
JB
1033* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1034
20388dd6
YQ
1035* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1036 target.
1037
f3e0e960
SS
1038* MI changes
1039
1040 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1041
37ce89eb
SS
1042 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1043
edcc5120
TT
1044* New commands
1045
e615022a
DE
1046 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1047 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1048 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1049
edcc5120
TT
1050 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1051 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1052
816338b5
SS
1053 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1054 several hits.
1055
57651221 1056 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
c4aeac85
TT
1057 C++ and Java objects.
1058
06fc020f 1059 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
6ea71545 1060 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
06fc020f
SCR
1061 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1062 configured with '--with-python'.
1063
bf88dd68
JK
1064 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1065 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1066 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1067 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1068 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1069 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1070 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1071
1072 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1073 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1074 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1075 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1076
e7e0cddf
SS
1077 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1078 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1079 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1080 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1081
9cb709b6
TT
1082 ** "set print symbol"
1083 "show print symbol"
1084 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1085 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1086 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1087
2d4c29c5
TS
1088* Deprecated commands
1089
1090 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1091 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1092
a58b110a
KB
1093* New targets
1094
1095Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 1096HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 1097
72895ff6
LM
1098* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1099 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1100 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1101 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1102 evaluates to true.
1103
1104* New options
1105
4cc0665f
MR
1106set mips compression
1107show mips compression
1108 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1109 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1110 mips16
1111 micromips
1112 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1113
72895ff6
LM
1114set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1115show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 1116 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
5b43fab2
JK
1117 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1118 available mode.
72895ff6
LM
1119 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1120 target.
1121
bf88dd68
JK
1122set auto-load off
1123 Disable auto-loading globally.
1124
1125show auto-load
1126 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1127
1128set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1129show auto-load gdb-scripts
1130 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1131
1132set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1133show auto-load python-scripts
1134 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1135
1136set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1137show auto-load local-gdbinit
1138 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1139
1140set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1141show auto-load libthread-db
1142 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1143
7349ff92 1144set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 1145show auto-load scripts-directory
7349ff92
JK
1146 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1147 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1148 of the directories listed by this option.
1149 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1150
bccbefd2
JK
1151set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1152show auto-load safe-path
1153 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1154 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1155
4dc84fd1
JK
1156set debug auto-load on|off
1157show debug auto-load
1158 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1159
d3ce09f5 1160set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 1161show dprintf-style
d3ce09f5
SS
1162 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1163 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1164 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1165 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
e7e0cddf
SS
1166
1167set dprintf-function <expr>
1168show dprintf-function
1169set dprintf-channel <expr>
1170show dprintf-channel
1171 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1172 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1173
d3ce09f5
SS
1174set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1175show disconnected-dprintf
1176 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1177 after GDB disconnects.
1178
6dea1fbd
JK
1179* New configure options
1180
7349ff92
JK
1181--with-auto-load-dir
1182 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1564a261
JK
1183 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1184 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1185 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1186 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 1187
6dea1fbd
JK
1188--with-auto-load-safe-path
1189 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 1190 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
6dea1fbd
JK
1191
1192--without-auto-load-safe-path
1193 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1194 security feature.
1195
72895ff6
LM
1196* New remote packets
1197
74c48cbb
PA
1198z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1199
72895ff6
LM
1200 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1201 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1202 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1203 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1204
9b224c5e
PA
1205QProgramSignals:
1206
1207 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1208 program without GDB involvement.
1209
8320cc4f
JK
1210* New command line options
1211
1212--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1213 before loading inferior.
1214--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1215 execute it before loading inferior.
1216
8837a20f
JB
1217*** Changes in GDB 7.4
1218
f8eba3c6
TT
1219* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1220 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1221 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1222 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1223 inferior changes.
1224
1bfeeb0f
JL
1225* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1226 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1227
480a3f21
PW
1228* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1229 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1230 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1231 target hardware watchpoint.
1232
1233 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1234 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1235 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1236 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1237
3a7bf607
PM
1238* Python scripting
1239
32d1c362 1240 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 1241 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
1242 existing one.
1243
3a7bf607 1244 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
1245 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1246 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1247 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1248 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1249 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 1250
baacfb07 1251 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 1252 Python API.
713389e0 1253
fa3a4f15
PM
1254 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1255 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 1256 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
fa3a4f15
PM
1257 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1258 corresponding value.
1259
5e239b84
PM
1260 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1261 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1262 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1263 on GDB start-up.
1264
9df2fbc4
PM
1265 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1266 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1267 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1268 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1269
457e09f0
DE
1270 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1271
6839b47f
KP
1272 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1273 "gdb.breakpoints".
1274
cc72b2a2
KP
1275 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1276 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1277 available in the CLI.
1278
84ad80e6
PK
1279 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1280 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1281 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1282 "some_type.items()".
1283
20c168b5
KP
1284 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1285 new object file.
1286
03c3051a
PK
1287 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1288 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1289 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1290 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1291 any anonymous fields.
1292
7376e450
TT
1293* MI changes
1294
1295 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1296 "solib-event".
1297
1298 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1299 "=breakpoint-modified".
1300
1301 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1302
98a5dd13
DE
1303* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1304 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1305 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1306 lives.
1307
1308 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1309 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1310 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1311 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1312 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1313
1314 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1315 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1316
478aac75
DE
1317* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1318 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1319 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1320 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1321 use this option to specify where to find it.
1322
9c06b0b4
TJB
1323* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1324 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1325 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1326 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1327 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1328 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1329 section in the user manual for more details.
1330
03f2bd59
JK
1331* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1332 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1333 become available after that.
1334
71eba9c2 1335* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 1336
2bda9cc5
JK
1337* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1338 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1339 gcc version 4.7.
1340
ed59ded5
DE
1341* New commands
1342
1343!SHELL COMMAND
1344 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1345 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1346
9c06b0b4
TJB
1347* Changed commands
1348
1349watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1350 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1351 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1352
dbaefcf7
DE
1353info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1354 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1355 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1356
71eba9c2 1357info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1358 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1359 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1360 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1361 name starts with a hyphen.
1362
3065dfb6
SS
1363collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1364 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1365 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1366 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1367 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1368 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1369 number of bytes that will be collected.
1370
f196051f
SS
1371tstart [NOTES]
1372 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1373 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1374 setting the variable trace-notes.
1375
1376tstop [NOTES]
1377 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1378 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1379 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1380 trace-stop-notes.
1381
d248b706
KY
1382* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1383 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1384 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1385 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1386 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1387 is running.
1388
405f8e94
SS
1389* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1390 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1391 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1392
2bda9cc5
JK
1393* New options
1394
45cfd468
DE
1395set debug dwarf2-read
1396show debug dwarf2-read
1397 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1398 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1399
1400set debug symtab-create
1401show debug symtab-create
1402 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1403 creation. The default is off.
1404
baacfb07
PM
1405set extended-prompt
1406show extended-prompt
1407 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1408 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1409 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1410 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1411 prompt is displayed.
1412
2bda9cc5
JK
1413set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1414show print entry-values
1415 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1416 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1417 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1418
1419set debug entry-values
1420show debug entry-values
1421 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1422 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1423
c011a4f4
DE
1424set basenames-may-differ
1425show basenames-may-differ
1426 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1427 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1428 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1429 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1430 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1431 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1432 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1433 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1434
f196051f
SS
1435set trace-user
1436show trace-user
1437set trace-notes
1438show trace-notes
1439 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1440 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1441 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1442 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1443
1444set trace-stop-notes
1445show trace-stop-notes
1446 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1447 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1448 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1449 started by someone else.
1450
d248b706
KY
1451* New remote packets
1452
1453QTEnable
1454
1455 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1456
1457QTDisable
1458
1459 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1460
f196051f
SS
1461QTNotes
1462
1463 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1464
1465qTP
1466
1467 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1468
405f8e94
SS
1469qTMinFTPILen
1470
1471 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1472 be placed.
1473
1a532630
PP
1474* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1475 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1476
11315641
YQ
1477* New targets
1478
1479Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1480
87326c78
DD
1481* New Simulators
1482
1483Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1484
e8d56f18
JB
1485*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1486
1487* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1488
d6e00af6 1489*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 1490
60f98dde
MS
1491* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1492 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1493 matches the given regular expression.
1494
eee5b35e
DD
1495* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1496
b716877b
AB
1497* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1498 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1499
aae1c79a
DE
1500* New command line options
1501
1502-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1503 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1504
a86caf66
DE
1505* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1506 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1507
99e7ae30
DE
1508* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1509 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1510 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1511
4694da01
TT
1512* GDB now understands thread names.
1513
1514 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1515 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1516
1517 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1518 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1519
f4b8a18d
KW
1520* OpenCL C
1521 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1522 has been integrated into GDB.
1523
585d1eb8
PM
1524* Python scripting
1525
da5d4055
PM
1526 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1527 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1528 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1529
9a6f1302
PM
1530 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1531 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1532 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1533 and allows for more dynamic content.
1534
29703da4
PM
1535 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1536 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1537 have an is_valid method.
1538
350c6c65
PM
1539 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1540 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1541 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1542
6e6fbe60
DE
1543 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1544
585d1eb8
PM
1545 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1546 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1547 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1548 that function like so:
1549
1550 result = some_value (10,20)
1551
0e3509db
DE
1552 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1553 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1554 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1555
7b51bc51
DE
1556 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1557 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1558 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1559 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1560 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1561
1562 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1563 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1564
99e7ae30
DE
1565 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1566
d8e22779
TT
1567 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1568 selected thread.
1569
4694da01
TT
1570 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1571 holds the thread's name.
1572
505500db
SW
1573 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1574 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 1575 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
1576 The following events are currently supported:
1577 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1578 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1579 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1580
def98928
TT
1581* C++ Improvements:
1582
1583 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1584 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1585
1586 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1587
1588 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1589 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1590 was added to GCC 4.5.
1591
66cb8159
TT
1592 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1593 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1594 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1595 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1596 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1597 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1598
4aac0db7
UW
1599* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1600 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1601 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1602 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1603 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1604
283e6a52
TT
1605* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1606 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1607 execution to a label.
1608
1609* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1610 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1611 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1612 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1613
b56df873 1614* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 1615 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
1616 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1617 of scope.
1618
ae53ffa4
PA
1619* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1620
1621 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1622 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1623 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1624 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1625 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1626 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1627
1628 (gdb) info threads
1629 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1630
1631 While now you see this:
1632
1633 (gdb) info threads
1634 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1635
1636 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1637 dumps.
1638
1639 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1640 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1641 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1642 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1643
f1310107
TJB
1644* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1645 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1646 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1647 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1648 section in the user manual for more details.
1649
248c9dbc
JB
1650* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1651
1aee7009
JB
1652 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1653 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 1654
eb826dc6
MF
1655 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1656
44603653
JB
1657* New native configurations
1658
1659ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1660
91021223
MF
1661* New targets:
1662
1663Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1664
6e1bb179
JB
1665* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1666 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1667 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1668 in the GDB user manual.
1669
50c97f38
TT
1670* Guile support was removed.
1671
448a92bf
MF
1672* New features in the GNU simulator
1673
1674 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1675
66ee2731
MF
1676 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1677
76b8507d 1678*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 1679
ba25b921
PA
1680* Shared library support for remote targets by default
1681
1682 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1683 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1684 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1685 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1686 was always disabled for such configurations.
1687
4656f5c6
SW
1688* C++ Improvements:
1689
1690 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1691
1692 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1693 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1694 For example:
1695 namespace A
1696 {
1697 class B { };
1698 void foo (B) { }
1699 }
1700 ...
1701 A::B b
1702 foo(b)
1703 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1704 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1705 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1706
1707 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1708
1709 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1710 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1711 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1712 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1713 entry.
1714 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1715 mentioned flavors of operators.
1716
254e6b9e
DE
1717 ** static const class members
1718
1719 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1720 class definition has been fixed.
1721
711e434b
PM
1722* Windows Thread Information Block access.
1723
1724 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1725 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1726 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1727 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1728 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1729 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1730
0fb4aa4b
PA
1731* Static tracepoints
1732
1733 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1734 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1735 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1736 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1737 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1738 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1739 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1740 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1741 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1742 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1743 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1744 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1745 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1746 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1747 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1748 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1749 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1750 the "New remote packets" section below.
1751
ca11e899
SS
1752* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1753
1754 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1755 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1756 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1757 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1758
1759* Observer mode
1760
1761 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1762 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1763 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1764 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1765 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1766 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1767 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1768
1769* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1770 current thread.
1771
711e434b
PM
1772* New remote packets
1773
1774qGetTIBAddr
1775
1776 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1777
dde08ee1
PA
1778qRelocInsn
1779
1780 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1781 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1782 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1783 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1784 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1785 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1786
0fb4aa4b
PA
1787qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1788
1789 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1790
1791qTSTMat
1792
1793 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1794 program.
1795
1796qXfer:statictrace:read
1797
1798 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1799 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1800 to gdb's qSupported query.
1801
ca11e899
SS
1802QAllow
1803
1804 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1805
1806QTDPsrc
1807
1808 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1809 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1810
3f7b2faa
DE
1811* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1812 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1813 a directory.
1814
d337e9f0
PA
1815* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1816
0fb4aa4b
PA
1817 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1818 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1819 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1820 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1821
1822 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1823 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1824 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1825 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1826 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1827 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1828 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1829
1830 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1831 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 1832
c24d0242
PM
1833 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1834
c8d5aac9
L
1835* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1836 it understands register description.
1837
7c953934
TT
1838* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1839
8685c86f
L
1840* X86 general purpose registers
1841
1842 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1843 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1844 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1845 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1846 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1847
95a42b64 1848* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
1849 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1850 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1851 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1852 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1853 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 1854
8bd10a10
CM
1855* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1856 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1857 in the specified file.
1858
ab38a727
PA
1859* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1860 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1861 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1862 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1863 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1864 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1865 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1866 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1867 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1868 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1869
6149aea9
PA
1870* New commands
1871
f1421989
HZ
1872eval template, expressions...
1873 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1874 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1875
ab38a727
PA
1876set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1877show target-file-system-kind
1878 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1879 names.
1880
6149aea9
PA
1881save breakpoints <filename>
1882 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1883 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1884 definitions, use the `source' command.
1885
1886`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1887is now deprecated.
1888
0fb4aa4b
PA
1889info static-tracepoint-markers
1890 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1891
1892strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1893 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1894 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1895
ca11e899
SS
1896set observer on|off
1897show observer
1898 Enable and disable observer mode.
1899
1900set may-write-registers on|off
1901set may-write-memory on|off
1902set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1903set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1904set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1905set may-interrupt on|off
1906 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1907 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1908 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1909 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1910 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1911 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1912 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1913
1914set record memory-query on|off
1915show record memory-query
1916 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1917 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1918
53a71c06
CR
1919* Changed commands
1920
1921disassemble
1922 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1923
f3e9a817
PM
1924* Python scripting
1925
9279c692
JB
1926** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1927 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1928 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1929 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1930 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1931
adc36818 1932** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
1933 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1934 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1935 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 1936
fa33c3cd 1937** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
1938 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1939
1940** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
1941
1942** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 1943
967cf477
DE
1944** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1945
8a1ea21f
DE
1946** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1947 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1948 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1949
a7bdde9e
VP
1950* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1951there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1952tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1953regular breakpoints.
1954
05071a4d
PA
1955* New targets
1956
1957ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1958
6aecb9c2
JB
1959* D language support.
1960 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1961 language.
1962
431e49aa
TJB
1963* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1964 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1965 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1966 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1967 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1968
1969* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1970 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1971 conditions of the form:
1972
1973 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1974
1975 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1976 interface mentioned above.
1977
bfbf3774 1978*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 1979
4eef138c
TT
1980* C++ Improvements
1981
1982 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
1983
1984 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1985 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1986 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1987 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1988 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1989
4eef138c
TT
1990 ** Bug Fixes
1991
1992 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1993 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1994 qualified name.
1995
1996 ** Cast Operators
1997
1998 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1999 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
2000
2d1c1221
ME
2001* New targets
2002
2003Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 2004Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
2005
2006* New Simulators
2007
2008Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 2009Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 2010
6c95b8df
PA
2011* Multi-program debugging.
2012
2013 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
2014 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
2015 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
2016 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
2017 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
2018 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
2019 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
2020 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
2021
d5551862
SS
2022* New tracing features
2023
2024 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
2025
2026 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
2027
2028 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
2029 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
2030 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
2031 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2032 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2033 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2034 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2035 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2036 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2037 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 2038
d5551862 2039 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
2040
2041 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2042 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2043 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2044 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2045 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2046 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2047 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2048 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2049 the regular trace command.
2050
d5551862
SS
2051 ** Disconnected tracing
2052
2053 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2054 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2055 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2056 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2057 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2058
00bf0b85
SS
2059 ** Trace files
2060
2061 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2062 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2063 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2064 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2065 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2066 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2067 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
2068
2069 ** Circular trace buffer
2070
2071 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2072 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2073 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2074 not be available for all target agents.
2075
21a0512e
PP
2076* Changed commands
2077
2078disassemble
2079 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2080 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2081
0fe7935b
DJ
2082info variables
2083 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2084 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2085
fb2e7cb4
JB
2086source
2087 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2088 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2089 support.
2090
2091 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2092 "set script-extension" (see below).
2093
6c95b8df
PA
2094* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2095
399cd161
MS
2096record save [<FILENAME>]
2097 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2098 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2099
2100record restore <FILENAME>
2101 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2102 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2103
6c95b8df
PA
2104add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2105 Add a new inferior.
2106
2107clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2108 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2109 inferior has loaded.
2110
2111remove-inferior ID
2112 Remove an inferior.
2113
2114maint info program-spaces
2115 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2116
9a7071a8
JB
2117set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2118show remote interrupt-sequence
2119 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2120 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2121 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2122 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2123 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2124
2125set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2126show remote interrupt-on-connect
2127 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2128 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2129 Linux kernel.
2130
2131set remotebreak [on | off]
2132show remotebreak
2133Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2134
f61e138d
SS
2135tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2136 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2137
2138info tvariables
2139 List trace state variables and their values.
2140
2141delete tvariable $NAME ...
2142 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2143
6da95a67
SS
2144teval EXPR, ...
2145 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2146 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2147
7a697b8d
SS
2148ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2149 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2150
b0f02ee9
JK
2151* New expression syntax
2152
2153 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2154 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2155
6c95b8df
PA
2156* New options
2157
2158set follow-exec-mode new|same
2159show follow-exec-mode
2160 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2161 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2162 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2163
236f1d4d
SS
2164set default-collect EXPR, ...
2165show default-collect
2166 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2167 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2168 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2169
d5551862
SS
2170set disconnected-tracing
2171show disconnected-tracing
2172 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2173 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2174 upon disconnection.
2175
4daf5ac0
SS
2176set circular-trace-buffer
2177show circular-trace-buffer
2178 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2179 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2180 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2181 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2182
fb2e7cb4
JB
2183set script-extension off|soft|strict
2184show script-extension
2185 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2186 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2187 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2188 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2189 evaluation failed.
2190 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2191
2b71fc8e
JB
2192set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2193show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2194 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2195 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2196 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2197 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2198 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2199 is on.
2200
de2e5182
TT
2201* Python API Improvements
2202
2203 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2204 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2205 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2206
2207 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2208 `is_base_class' attribute.
2209
2210 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2211
2212 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2213 evaluate an expression.
2214
f61e138d
SS
2215* New remote packets
2216
2217QTDV
2218 Define a trace state variable.
2219
2220qTV
2221 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2222
d5551862
SS
2223QTDisconnected
2224 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2225
4daf5ac0
SS
2226QTBuffer:circular
2227 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2228
d5551862
SS
2229qTfP, qTsP
2230 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2231
2d483d34
MS
2232* Bug fixes
2233
2234Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2235
6e0e5977
JB
2236Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2237much more reliable. In particular:
2238 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2239 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2240 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2241 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2242 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2243 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2244 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2245 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2246 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2247 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2248 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2249 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2250 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2251 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2252 non-threaded programs.
2253
93c26624
JK
2254PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2255This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2256libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2257executable program.
2258
abc7453d 2259*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 2260
4efc6507
DE
2261* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2262dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2263them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2264for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2265"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2266
782b2b07
SS
2267* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2268breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2269or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2270the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2271for tracepoint actions.
2272
53a71c06
CR
2273* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2274raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2275modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 2276
e7a8dbfb
HZ
2277* Process record and replay
2278
2279 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2280 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2281 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2282 execute commands.
2283
64644d9b
MS
2284* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2285step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2286set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2287reverse execution.
2288
b9412953
DD
2289* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2290feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
22912.6.28 or later.
2292
6c7a06a3
TT
2293* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2294target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2295char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2296literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2297U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2298`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2299system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2300the installation instructions for more information.
2301
f1838a98
UW
2302* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2303remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2304with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2305the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2306
55333a84
DE
2307* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2308and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2309
7f6a6314
PM
2310* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2311now complete on file names.
2312
65d12d83
TT
2313* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2314completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2315For instance, consider:
2316
2317 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2318 # struct example variable;
2319 (gdb) p variable.
2320
2321If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2322completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2323
edb3359d
DJ
2324* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2325the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2326
2fae03e8
TT
2327* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2328operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2329macros.
2330
47a3467a 2331* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
2332the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2333implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2334
2335* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2336registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2337can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2338and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 2339
08388c79
DE
2340* New remote packets
2341
2342qSearch:memory:
2343 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2344
a6f3e723
SL
2345QStartNoAckMode
2346 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2347 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2348 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2349
d7713ae0
EZ
2350vKill
2351 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2352 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2353
07e059b5
VP
2354qXfer:osdata:read
2355 Obtains additional operating system information
2356
47a3467a
PA
2357qXfer:siginfo:read
2358qXfer:siginfo:write
2359 Read or write additional signal information.
2360
060871df
PA
2361* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2362
2363 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2364 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2365 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2366
c055b101 2367* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 2368DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
2369
2370* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
2371and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2372`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 2373
31fffb02
CS
2374* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2375with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2376
88d8a8e0
JB
2377* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2378
7f99b190
JB
2379* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2380
ccd213ac
DJ
2381* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2382which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2383
1fddbabb 2384* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 2385list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 2386
a0ef4274
DJ
2387* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2388conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2389have also been fixed.
2390
bfb8797a 2391* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
2392From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2393are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 2394
71c25dea
TT
2395* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2396example, given:
2397
2398 template<typename T> class C { };
2399 C<char const *> c;
2400
2401GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2402
2403 ptype C<char const *>
2404 ptype C<char const*>
2405 ptype C<const char *>
2406 ptype C<const char*>
2407
ccd213ac
DJ
2408* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2409
2410 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2411 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2412
7ae0e2a2
UW
2413 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2414 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2415 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2416
a6f3e723
SL
2417 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2418 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2419
da8bd9a3
DJ
2420 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2421 gdbserver.
2422
d70e31dd
DE
2423 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2424 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2425
2426 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2427 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2428 as appropriate.
2429
d57a3c85
TJB
2430* Python scripting
2431
2432 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2433 available is determined at configure time.
2434
d8906c6f
TJB
2435 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2436
aadc346a
JB
2437* Ada tasking support
2438
2439 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2440 been introduced:
2441
2442 info tasks
2443 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2444 info task N
2445 Print detailed information about task number N.
2446 task
2447 Print the task number of the current task.
2448 task N
2449 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2450
adb483fe
DJ
2451* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2452add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2453
2277426b
PA
2454* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2455
2456 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2457 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2458 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2459 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2460 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2461 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2462 below.
2463
08d16641
PA
2464* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2465"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2466information.
2467
e35359c5
UW
2468* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2469to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2470architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2471See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2472more information.
2473
85e747d2
UW
2474* Multi-architecture debugging.
2475
2476 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2477 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2478 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2479 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2480 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2481
2482* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2483use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2484Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2485powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2486--enable-targets configure option.
2487
11ade57a
PA
2488* Non-stop mode debugging.
2489
2490 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2491 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2492 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2493 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2494 section in the user manual for more information.
2495
2496 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2497 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2498 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2499 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2500 extensions on linux targets.
2501
d7713ae0 2502* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 2503
a96d9b2e
SDJ
2504catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2505 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2506 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2507 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2508 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2509 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2510 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2511 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2512 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2513
08388c79
DE
2514find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2515 val1 [, val2, ...]
2516 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2517
d57a3c85
TJB
2518maint set python print-stack
2519maint show python print-stack
2520 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2521
2522python [CODE]
2523 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2524
d7713ae0
EZ
2525macro define
2526macro list
2527macro undef
2528 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2529 interactively.
2530
2531info os processes
2532 Show operating system information about processes.
2533
2277426b
PA
2534info inferiors
2535 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2536
2537inferior NUM
2538 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2539
2540detach inferior NUM
2541 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2542
2543kill inferior NUM
2544 Kill inferior number NUM.
2545
d7713ae0
EZ
2546* New options
2547
3285f3fe
UW
2548set spu stop-on-load
2549show spu stop-on-load
2550 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2551
ff1a52c6
UW
2552set spu auto-flush-cache
2553show spu auto-flush-cache
2554 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2555 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2556
d7713ae0
EZ
2557set sh calling-convention
2558show sh calling-convention
2559 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2560
e0a3ce09 2561set debug timestamp
75feb17d 2562show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
2563 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2564
2565set disassemble-next-line
2566show disassemble-next-line
2567 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2568 the debuggee stops.
2569
2570set remote noack-packet
2571show remote noack-packet
2572 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2573 under "New remote packets."
2574
2575set remote query-attached-packet
2576show remote query-attached-packet
2577 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2578
2579set remote read-siginfo-object
2580show remote read-siginfo-object
2581 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2582 packet.
2583
2584set remote write-siginfo-object
2585show remote write-siginfo-object
2586 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2587 packet.
2588
40ab02ce
MS
2589set remote reverse-continue
2590show remote reverse-continue
2591 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2592
2593set remote reverse-step
2594show remote reverse-step
2595 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2596
d7713ae0
EZ
2597set displaced-stepping
2598show displaced-stepping
2599 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2600 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2601 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2602
2603set debug displaced
2604show debug displaced
2605 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2606
2607maint set internal-error
2608maint show internal-error
2609 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2610
2611maint set internal-warning
2612maint show internal-warning
2613 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 2614
ccd213ac
DJ
2615set exec-wrapper
2616show exec-wrapper
2617unset exec-wrapper
2618 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 2619
aad4b048
JB
2620set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2621show multiple-symbols
2622 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2623 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2624 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2625
74960c60
VP
2626set breakpoint always-inserted
2627show breakpoint always-inserted
2628 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2629 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2630 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2631
0428b8f5
DJ
2632set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2633show arm fallback-mode
2634set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2635show arm force-mode
2636 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2637 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2638 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2639 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2640
10568435
JK
2641set disable-randomization
2642show disable-randomization
2643 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2644 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2645 multiple debugging sessions.
2646
d7713ae0
EZ
2647set non-stop
2648show non-stop
2649 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2650 a breakpoint.
2651
b3eb342c 2652set target-async
d7713ae0 2653show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
2654 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2655 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2656 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2657 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2658
6c7a06a3
TT
2659set target-wide-charset
2660show target-wide-charset
2661 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2662 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2663
84603566
SL
2664set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2665show tcp auto-retry
2666set tcp connect-timeout
2667show tcp connect-timeout
2668 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2669 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2670 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2671
17a37d48
PP
2672set libthread-db-search-path
2673show libthread-db-search-path
2674 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2675 libthread_db.
2676
d4db2f36
PA
2677set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2678show schedule-multiple
2679 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2680 the current process.
2681
4e5d721f
DE
2682set stack-cache
2683show stack-cache
2684 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2685 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2686 affecting correctness.
2687
910c5da8
JB
2688set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2689show interactive-mode
2690 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2691 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2692 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2693 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2694 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2695
2277426b
PA
2696* Removed commands
2697
2698info forks
2699 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2700 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2701 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2702 command.
2703
2704fork NUM
2705 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2706 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2707 alias for the `fork' command.
2708
2709process PID
2710 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2711 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2712 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2713
2714delete fork NUM
2715 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2716 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2717 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2718 fork' command.
2719
2720detach fork NUM
2721 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2722 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2723 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2724 fork' command.
2725
a80b95ba
TG
2726* New native configurations
2727
2728x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2729
b8bfd3ed
JB
2730x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2731
75a2d5e7
TT
2732* New targets
2733
c28c63d8 2734Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 2735x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 2736x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 2737S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 2738
6de3146c
PA
2739* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2740 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2741
d5cbbe6e
JB
2742* Removed commands
2743
2744catch load
2745catch unload
2746 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2747
75feb17d 2748*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 2749
af5ca30d
NH
2750* New native configurations
2751
2752NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 2753Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
2754
2755* New targets
2756
2757NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 2758Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 2759
7a404eba
PA
2760* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2761
2762 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2763 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2764 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2765 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2766
430ebac9
PA
2767* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2768(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2769
fe6fbf8b 2770* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 2771is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
2772
2773* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
2774including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2775and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 2776
10665d76
JB
2777* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2778accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2779more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2780
7cc46491
DJ
2781* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2782
d71340b8
DJ
2783* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2784registers on PowerPC targets.
2785
523c4513
DJ
2786* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2787targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2788
a6b151f1
DJ
2789* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2790commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2791
2d717e4f
DJ
2792* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2793extended-remote mode.
2794
24a836bd 2795* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
2796The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2797error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2798The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 2799
d0c678e6
UW
2800* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2801building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2802target architectures.
2803
d64a946d
TJB
2804* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2805Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2806now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2807stored in two consecutive float registers.
2808
ee163bf5
VP
2809* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2810breakpoints now.
2811
b93b6ca7 2812* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
2813Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2814include:
b93b6ca7
JB
2815 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2816 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2817 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2818 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2819 of an assignment
2820 - Improved command completion in Ada
2821 - Several bug fixes
2822
d001be7a
DJ
2823* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2824process.
2825
a6b151f1
DJ
2826* New commands
2827
6d53d0af
JB
2828set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2829show print frame-arguments
2830 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2831 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2832
a6b151f1
DJ
2833remote put
2834remote get
2835remote delete
2836 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2837
2838* New MI commands
2839
2840-target-file-put
2841-target-file-get
2842-target-file-delete
2843 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2844
2845* New remote packets
2846
2847vFile:open:
2848vFile:close:
2849vFile:pread:
2850vFile:pwrite:
2851vFile:unlink:
2852 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 2853
2d717e4f
DJ
2854vAttach
2855 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2856 mode.
2857
2858vRun
2859 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2860
8d5f9c6f 2861*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 2862
19d378fc
MS
2863* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2864bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2865Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2866
3a40aaa0
UW
2867* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2868symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2869-Bsymbolic linker option.
2870
a6ec25f2
BW
2871* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2872recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2873is not supported.
2874
6dd09645
JB
2875* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2876frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2877
c9bb8148
DJ
2878* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
287932-bit or 64-bit register values.
2880
0d5de010
DJ
2881* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2882
23181151
DJ
2883* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2884target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2885a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2886
ea37ba09
DJ
2887* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2888automatically displayed as character or string data.
2889
2890* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2891arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2892as strings.
e1f48ead 2893
123dc839
DJ
2894* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2895for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 2896only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 2897
05a4558a
DJ
2898* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2899iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 2900
7c963485
PA
2901* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2902ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2903has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2904
b18be20d
DJ
2905* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2906
0ca420ce
UW
2907* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2908
31d99776
DJ
2909* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2910layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2911segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2912
a4642986
MR
2913* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2914immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2915
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2916* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2917"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2918packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2919where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2920Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
2921
2922* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2923(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
2924
2925* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2926according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 2927
c9bb8148
DJ
2928* New commands
2929
23776285
MR
2930set remoteflow
2931show remoteflow
2932 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2933 when debugging using remote targets.
2934
c9bb8148
DJ
2935set mem inaccessible-by-default
2936show mem inaccessible-by-default
2937 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2938 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2939 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2940 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2941 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2942
2943set breakpoint auto-hw
2944show breakpoint auto-hw
2945 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2946 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2947 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2948 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2949 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2950 including "next" and "finish".
2951
0e420bd8
JB
2952catch exception
2953catch exception unhandled
2954 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2955
2956catch assert
2957 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2958
f822c95b
DJ
2959set sysroot
2960show sysroot
2961 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2962 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2963 an alias to "set sysroot".
2964
83cc5c53
UW
2965info spu
2966 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2967 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2968 architecture.
2969
bd372731
MK
2970* New native configurations
2971
2972OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2973
23181151
DJ
2974set tdesc filename
2975unset tdesc filename
2976show tdesc filename
2977 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2978 not query the target for its built-in description.
2979
c9bb8148
DJ
2980* New targets
2981
54fe9172 2982OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 2983MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 2984Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 2985
6dd09645
JB
2986* New remote packets
2987
2988QPassSignals:
2989 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2990 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2991
23181151
DJ
2992qXfer:features:read:
2993 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2994 features.
6dd09645 2995
83cc5c53
UW
2996qXfer:spu:read:
2997qXfer:spu:write:
2998 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2999 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
3000
cfa9d6d9
DJ
3001qXfer:libraries:read:
3002 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
3003 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
3004 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
3005 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
3006
483367ee
DJ
3007* Removed targets
3008
3009Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3010
d08950c4
UW
3011alpha*-*-osf1*
3012alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 3013d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
3014hppa*-*-hiux*
3015i[34567]86-ncr-*
3016i[34567]86-*-dgux*
3017i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
3018i[34567]86-*-netware*
3019i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
3020i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
3021i[34567]86-*-sco*
3022i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
3023i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
3024i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
3025i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
3026i[34567]86-*-unixware*
3027i[34567]86-*-sysv*
3028i[34567]86-*-isc*
3029m68*-cisco*-*
3030m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 3031mips*-*-pe
483367ee 3032rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 3033sh*-*-pe
483367ee 3034
7ce59000
DJ
3035* Other removed features
3036
3037target abug
3038target cpu32bug
3039target est
3040target rom68k
3041
3042 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3043
ea35711c
DJ
3044target hms
3045target e7000
3046target sh3
3047target sh3e
3048
3049 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3050 H8/300.
3051
3052target ocd
3053
3054 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3055 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3056 interfaces.
3057
7ce59000
DJ
3058DWARF 1 support
3059
3060 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3061 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3062
54d61198
DJ
3063Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3064
3065 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3066 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3067 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3068 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3069
ea35711c
DJ
3070MIPS ".pdr" sections
3071
3072 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3073 in debugging information.
3074
3075Scheme support
3076
3077 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3078 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3079
1a69e1e4
DJ
3080set mips stack-arg-size
3081set mips saved-gpreg-size
3082
3083 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3084
6dd09645 3085*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 3086
ca3bf3bd
DJ
3087* New targets
3088
3089Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 3090Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 3091
6aec2e11
DJ
3092* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3093(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3094running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3095
3096* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3097Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3098supported.
3099
17218d91
DJ
3100* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3101broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3102
9ebce043
DJ
3103* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3104stub provides the required support.
3105
7d3d3ece
DJ
3106* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3107longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3108
4f8253f3
JB
3109* New commands
3110
3111set substitute-path
3112unset substitute-path
3113show substitute-path
3114 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3115 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3116 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3117 between compilation and debugging.
3118
9fa66fd7
AS
3119set trace-commands
3120show trace-commands
3121 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3122 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3123 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3124
1f5befc1
DJ
3125* REMOVED features
3126
3127The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3128
2ec3381a
DJ
3129Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3130an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3131
3d00d119
DJ
3132The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3133
be2a5f71
DJ
3134* New remote packets
3135
3136qSupported:
3137 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3138 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3139 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3140 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3141 target.
3142
0876f84a
DJ
3143qXfer:auxv:read:
3144 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3145 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3146
9ebce043
DJ
3147qXfer:memory-map:read:
3148 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3149 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3150
3151vFlashErase:
3152vFlashWrite:
3153vFlashDone:
3154 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3155
0876f84a
DJ
3156* Removed remote packets
3157
3158qPart:auxv:read:
3159 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3160 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3161
e374b601 3162*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 3163
96309189
MS
3164* New targets
3165
3166Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3167
3168Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3169
53e5f3cf
AS
3170* New commands
3171
3172init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3173 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3174
ac264b3b
MS
3175The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3176
3177checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3178
3179restart <n> Return the program state to a
3180 previously saved state.
3181
3182info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3183
3184delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3185
3186set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3187 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3188
3189info forks List forks of the user program that
3190 are available to be debugged.
3191
3192fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3193 forks of the user program that are
3194 available to be debugged.
3195
3196delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3197 that are available to be debugged (and
3198 kill the forked process).
3199
3200detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3201 that are available to be debugged (and
3202 allow the process to continue).
3203
3950dc3f
NS
3204* New architecture
3205
3206Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3207
0ea3f30e
DJ
3208* Improved Windows host support
3209
3210GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3211native console support, and remote communications using either
3212network sockets or serial ports.
3213
f79daebb
GM
3214* Improved Modula-2 language support
3215
3216GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3217basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3218pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3219printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3220written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3221GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3222
acab6ab2
MM
3223* REMOVED features
3224
3225The ARM rdi-share module.
3226
f4267320
DJ
3227The Netware NLM debug server.
3228
53e5f3cf 3229*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 3230
e0ecbda1
MK
3231* New native configurations
3232
02a677ac 3233OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
3234OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3235
d64a6579
KB
3236* New targets
3237
3238Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3239
b33a6190
AS
3240* New command line options
3241
3242--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3243--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3244 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3245--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3246 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3247 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3248 with the --command (-x) option.
3249
11dced61
AC
3250* Deprecated commands removed
3251
3252The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3253removed:
3254
3255 Command Replacement
3256 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3257 othernames set arm disassembler
3258 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3259 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3260 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3261 regs info registers
3262
6fe85783
MK
3263* New BSD user-level threads support
3264
3265It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3266library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3267configurations are:
3268
3269FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3270FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3271OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3272
3273Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3274are not yet supported.
3275
5260ca71
MS
3276* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3277(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3278
e84ecc99
AC
3279* REMOVED configurations and files
3280
3281VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 3282Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 3283National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 3284
31e35378
JB
3285* New "set print array-indexes" command
3286
3287After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3288when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3289behavior.
3290
e85e5c83
MK
3291* VAX floating point support
3292
3293GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3294
d91e9901
AS
3295* User-defined command support
3296
3297In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3298to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3299section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3300
f2cb65ca
MC
3301*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3302
f47b1503
AS
3303* New command line option
3304
3305GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3306debugging.
3307
f2cb65ca
MC
3308* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3309
3310GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3311information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3312by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3313proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3314to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 3315
d08c0230
AC
3316* Internationalization
3317
3318When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3319internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3320continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3321
117ea3cf
PH
3322* Ada
3323
3324Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3325implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3326into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3327
d08c0230
AC
3328* New native configurations
3329
3330GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3331
3332* Remote 'p' packet
3333
3334GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3335packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3336
3337* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3338
3339GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3340The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3341features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3342i386 application).
3343
3344GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3345compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3346continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3347configurations:
3348
3349hppa-*-hpux
3350ia64-*-aix
3351mips-*-irix*
3352*-*-lynx
3353mips-*-linux-gnu
3354sds protocol
3355xdr protocol
3356powerpc bdm protocol
3357
3358Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3359made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3360
3361* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3362
3363Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3364been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3365configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3366permanently REMOVED.
3367
3368h8300-*-*
3369mcore-*-*
3370mn10300-*-*
3371ns32k-*-*
3372sh64-*-*
3373v850-*-*
3374
ebb7c577
AC
3375*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3376
3377* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3378
3379When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3380heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3381been fixed.
3382
3383* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3384
3385When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3386fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3387IRIX long double values).
3388
3389* VAX and "next"
3390
3391A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3392command. This problem has been fixed.
3393
860660cb 3394*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 3395
0dea2468
AC
3396* Fix for ``many threads''
3397
3398On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3399rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3400error message:
3401
3402 ptrace: No such process.
3403 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3404
3405This problem has been fixed.
3406
2c07db7a
AC
3407* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3408
3409Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3410GDB to dump core).
3411
c23968a2
JB
3412* New ``start'' command.
3413
3414This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3415
71009278
MK
3416* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3417
3418Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3419live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3420platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3421
3422FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3423FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3424NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3425NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3426NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3427OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3428OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3429OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3430OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3431
3c0b7db2
AC
3432* Signal trampoline code overhauled
3433
3434Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3435These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3436of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3437call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3438signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3439
73cc75f3
AC
3440Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3441features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3442include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 3443
7243600a
BF
3444* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3445
6f606e1c
MK
3446* New native configurations
3447
97dc871c 3448GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 3449OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
3450OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3451OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 3452OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3453NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 3454OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3455
a1b461bf
AC
3456* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3457
3458GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3459The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3460including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3461migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3462compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3463work, was also included.
3464
3465GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3466module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3467
3468h8300-*-*
3469mcore-*-*
3470mn10300-*-*
3471ns32k-*-*
3472sh64-*-*
3473v850-*-*
3474xstormy16-*-*
3475
3476Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3477made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3478
3c7012f5
AC
3479* REMOVED configurations and files
3480
3481Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3482Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3483Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3484Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3485Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3486AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3487Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3488decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3489riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3490sonymips mips-sony-*
3491sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3492
e5fe55f7
AC
3493*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3494
3495* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3496
3497The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3498GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3499command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3500program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3501with GDB".
3502
3503* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3504
3505Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3506libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3507cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3508GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3509shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3510the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3511are created.
3512
3513Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3514
3515* Fixed ISO-C build problems
3516
3517The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3518non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3519compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3520
3521* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3522
3523Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3524wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3525
3526* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3527
3528The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3529permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3530systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3531
3532* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3533
3534Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3535has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3536
3537* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3538
3539GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3540its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3541panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3542
3543* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3544
3545When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3546by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3547not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3548
faae5abe 3549*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 3550
9175c9a3
MC
3551* Removed --with-mmalloc
3552
3553Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3554conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3555
3cc87ec0
MK
3556* Changes in AMD64 configurations
3557
3558The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3559the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3560and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3561you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3562
f0424ef6
MK
3563* Revised SPARC target
3564
3565The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3566FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
3567support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3568from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3569(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 3570
59659be2
ILT
3571* New C++ demangler
3572
3573GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3574names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3575with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3576programs.
3577
9e08b29b
DJ
3578* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3579
3580GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3581arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3582encountered these.
3583
8dfe8985
DC
3584* C++ nested types and namespaces
3585
3586GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3587improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3588is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3589Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3590namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3591"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3592frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3593if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3594GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3595
cced5e27
MK
3596* New native configurations
3597
3598NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 3599OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 3600OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
3601OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3602OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 3603
b4b4b794
KI
3604* New debugging protocols
3605
3606M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3607
7989c619
AC
3608* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3609
3610The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3611and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3612tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3613
5994185b
AC
3614* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3615
3616Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3617been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3618configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3619permanently REMOVED.
3620
3621Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3622Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3623Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3624Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3625Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3626AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3627Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
3628decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3629riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3630sonymips mips-sony-*
3631sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 3632
0ddabb4c
AC
3633* REMOVED configurations and files
3634
3635SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3636SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
3637Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3638Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3639H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3640HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3641HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3642HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3643PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 3644386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
3645Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3646 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3647 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
3648SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3649SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
3650Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3651Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 3652
c7f1390e
DJ
3653*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3654
1fe43d45
AC
3655* Objective-C
3656
3657Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3658integrated into GDB.
3659
e6beb428
AC
3660* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3661
3662DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3663information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3664By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3665backtraces.
3666
3667The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3668have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3669DWARF 2 CFI support.
3670
3671* Hosted file I/O.
3672
3673GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3674file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3675remote protocol documentation for details.
3676
3677* All targets using the new architecture framework.
3678
3679All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3680architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3681to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3682ppc32 on ppc64).
3683
3684* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3685
3686GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3687per-thread variables.
3688
3689* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3690
3691GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3692GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3693
3694* Separate debug info.
3695
3696GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3697automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3698of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3699system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3700and optional debug files.
3701
3702* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3703
3704DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3705describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3706debugger.
3707
3708GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3709for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3710
3711* Java
3712
3713A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3714Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3715considered "useable".
3716
85f8f974
DJ
3717* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3718
3719The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3720commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3721kernel.
3722
0fac0b41
DJ
3723* GDB supports logging output to a file
3724
3725There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3726used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 3727
6ad8ae5c
DJ
3728* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3729
3730The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3731disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3732command.
3733
e286caf2 3734* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
3735
3736The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3737registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3738
d28f9cdf
DJ
3739* Profiling support
3740
3741A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3742be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3743session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3744"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3745data, for more informative profiling results.
3746
da0f9dcd
AC
3747* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3748
3749The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3750option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 3751"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
3752
3753Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3754removed.
3755
fb9b6b35
JJ
3756Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3757Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3758Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3759 in a subsequent -var-update.
3760
954a4db8
MK
3761* New native configurations.
3762
3763FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3764
6760f9e6
JB
3765* Multi-arched targets.
3766
b4263afa 3767HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 3768Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 3769
1b831c93
AC
3770* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3771
3772Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3773been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3774configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3775permanently REMOVED.
3776
8b0e5691 3777Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 3778Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 3779H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
3780HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3781HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3782HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 3783PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
3784Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3785 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3786 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
3787Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3788Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 3789
5835abe7
NC
3790* REMOVED configurations and files
3791
3792V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
3793Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3794IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3795i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3796i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3797i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3798HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3799 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3800 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3801Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3802Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3803Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3804OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3805I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 3806
a094c6fb
AC
3807* MIPS $fp behavior changed
3808
3809The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3810the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3811context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3812address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3813The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3814
299ffc64 3815*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 3816
46248966
AC
3817* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3818
3819When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3820`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3821in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3822library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3823shared libs like mad''.
3824
b9d14705 3825* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 3826
b9d14705
DJ
3827Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3828the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3829arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3830powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 3831
e0e9281e
JB
3832* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3833
3834GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3835and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3836they expand.
3837
dd73b9bb
AC
3838The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3839invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3840
3841The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3842macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3843
e0e9281e
JB
3844Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3845information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3846your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3847information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3848
2250ee0c
CV
3849* Multi-arched targets.
3850
6e3ba3b8
JT
3851DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3852DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 3853NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 3854National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
3855Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3856Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 3857
cd9bfe15 3858* New targets.
e33ce519 3859
456f8b9d
DB
3860Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3861
e33ce519 3862
da8ca43d
JT
3863* New native configurations
3864
3865Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 3866SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 3867MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 3868UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 3869
cd9bfe15
AC
3870* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3871
3872Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3873been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3874configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3875permanently REMOVED.
3876
92eb23c5 3877Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 3878OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 3879IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 3880Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 3881Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 3882Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
3883i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3884i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3885i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
3886HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3887 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3888 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 3889I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 3890
db034ac5
AC
3891* OBSOLETE languages
3892
3893CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3894
cd9bfe15
AC
3895* REMOVED configurations and files
3896
3897AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3898A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3899AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3900AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3901AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3902
3903testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3904
20f01a46
DH
3905* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3906
3907This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3908commands. The default is 1024.
3909
a5941fbf
MK
3910* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3911
3912Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3913
89743e04
MS
3914* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3915
3916These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3917to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3918from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 3919
9fb14e79
JB
3920* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3921
3922The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3923including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3924of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3925
2037aebb
AC
3926*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3927
3928* New targets.
3929
3930Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3931
3932* Bug fixes
3933
3934gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3935mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3936Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3937
3938gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3939dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3940Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3941
3942Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3943Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3944By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3945
3946i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3947avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3948By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3949
37057839 3950*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 3951
1a703748
MS
3952* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3953
3954This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3955really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3956In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3957target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3958This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3959(notably embedded) targets.
3960
cefd4ef5
MS
3961* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3962
55241689
AC
3963This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3964process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3965GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3966hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 3967
352ed7b4
MS
3968* New command line option
3969
3970GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3971
3972* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3973
3974There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3975command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3976a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3977be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3978open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3979issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3980a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3981it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3982GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3983is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3984
fe419ffc
RE
3985* Changes in ARM configurations.
3986
3987Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3988configuration is fully multi-arch.
3989
eb7cedd9
MK
3990* New native configurations
3991
fe419ffc 3992ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 3993x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 3994AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 3995Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 3996
c9f63e6b
CV
3997* New targets
3998
3999Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
4000
9b4ff276
AC
4001* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4002
4003Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4004been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4005configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4006permanently REMOVED.
4007
4008AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4009A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4010AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4011AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4012AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4013
b4ceaee6 4014testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 4015
e2caac18
AC
4016* REMOVED configurations and files
4017
4018TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 4019WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
4020PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4021PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4022PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 4023Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
4024Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4025 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 4026SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 4027Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
4028Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4029ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 4030Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 4031
c2a727fa
TT
4032* Changes to command line processing
4033
4034The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4035for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4036
467d8519
TT
4037* Changes to key bindings
4038
4039There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4040
7072a954
AC
4041*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4042
4043Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4044
4045Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4046corrupted.
4047
4048Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4049
4050Numerous documentation fixes.
4051
4052Numerous testsuite fixes.
4053
34f47bc4 4054*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
4055
4056* New native configurations
4057
4058Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4059x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 4060MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
4061MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4062ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 4063s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 4064
bf64bfd6
AC
4065* New targets
4066
def90278 4067Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 4068CRIS cris-axis
55241689 4069UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 4070
17e78a56 4071* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
4072
4073x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 4074Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
4075Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4076 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
4077TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4078WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 4079Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
4080PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4081PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4082PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 4083SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
4084Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4085ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 4086Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 4087
17e78a56
AC
4088stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4089kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4090
7fcca85b
AC
4091Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4092been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4093configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4094permanently REMOVED.
4095
a196c81c 4096* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
4097
4098Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4099Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4100Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4101ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4102Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 4103ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 4104
6d6b80e5 4105* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 4106
6d6b80e5 4107GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
4108sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4109present.
4110
bf64bfd6
AC
4111* Other news:
4112
e23194cb
EZ
4113* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4114
4115* The MI enabled by default.
4116
4117The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4118revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4119engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4120using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4121which is now deprecated.
4122
4123* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4124
4125GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4126main features are supported:
4127
4128 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4129
4130 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4131 extension;
4132
4133 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4134
4135 - a Pascal expression parser.
4136
4137However, some important features are not yet supported.
4138
4139 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4140
4141 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4142
4143 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4144 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4145
4146 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4147
4148 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4149
4150* Changes in completion.
4151
4152Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4153to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4154users expect at the shell prompt.
4155
4156Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4157`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4158program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4159files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4160be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4161considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4162name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4163
4164`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4165
4166* New platform-independent commands:
4167
4168It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4169hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4170documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4171
4172* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4173
d7275149
MK
4174Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4175revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4176many threads as your system allows you to have.
4177
e23194cb
EZ
4178Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4179
d7275149
MK
4180Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4181multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
4182
4183* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
4184
4185Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4186
e23194cb
EZ
4187GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4188debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4189supported.)
4190
4191* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4192
4193Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4194breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4195implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4196put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4197and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4198registers.
4199
4200The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4201debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4202watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4203
4204* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4205
4206New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4207the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4208
4209New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4210display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4211IDT.
4212
4213New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4214from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4215New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4216a given linear address.
4217
4218GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4219program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4220which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4221
4222DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4223
6c56c069
EZ
4224It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4225
e23194cb
EZ
4226* Changes in documentation.
4227
4228All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4229Documentation License.
4230
4231Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4232manual.
4233
4234TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4235
4236Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4237manual.
4238
4239The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4240documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4241hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4242
5d6640b1
AC
4243* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4244
4245The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4246``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4247contents of this file.
4248
1a1d8446
AC
4249* gdba.el deleted
4250
4251GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 4252
9debab2f 4253*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 4254
c63ce875
EZ
4255* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4256
4257Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4258programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4259displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4260greater level of detail.
4261
4262* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4263
4264It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4265bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4266on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4267written.
4268
4269* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4270
4271The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4272necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4273machines ``out of the box''.
4274
4275The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4276possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4277signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4278would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4279interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4280
4281It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4282standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4283even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4284and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4285terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4286
4287The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4288enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4289also works.
4290
4291DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4292GDB.
4293
4294It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4295directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4296times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4297breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4298
ed9a39eb
JM
4299* New native configurations
4300
4301ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 4302PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 4303
7a292a7a
SS
4304* New targets
4305
96baa820 4306Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
4307x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4308PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
4309TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4310
085dd6e6
JM
4311* OBSOLETE configurations
4312
4313Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4314Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 4315Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 4316ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 4317Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 4318
9debab2f
AC
4319Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4320but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4321these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4322be permanently REMOVED.
4323
5330533d
SS
4324* Gould support removed
4325
4326Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4327
bc9e5bbf
AC
4328* New features for SVR4
4329
4330On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4331without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4332load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4333
4334* Many C++ enhancements
4335
4336C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4337in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4338
adf40b2e
JM
4339* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4340
4341A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4342sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4343with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4344``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4345
4346 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4347 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4348
43e526b9
JM
4349* MIPS 64 remote protocol
4350
4351A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4352expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4353instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4354
4355The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4356added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4357
96baa820
JM
4358* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4359
4360The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4361``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4362include ``set remote P-packet''.
4363
11cf8741
JM
4364* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4365
4366The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4367accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4368``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4369
7876dd43
DB
4370* ``apropos'' command added.
4371
4372The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4373documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4374try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4375
bc9e5bbf
AC
4376* New MI interface
4377
4378A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4379interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
4380process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4381"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4382enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
4383
4384 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4385
c906108c
SS
4386*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4387
4388* New native configurations
4389
4390HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4391HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 4392M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
4393
4394* New targets
4395
4396Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4397Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4398Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4399
4400* OBSOLETE configurations
4401
4402Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4403
4404Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4405but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4406these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4407be permanently REMOVED.
4408
4409* ANSI/ISO C
4410
4411As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4412buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4413containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4414use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4415available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4416configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4417information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4418already.
4419
4420* Readline 2.2
4421
4422GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4423
4424* set extension-language
4425
4426You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4427languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4428you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4429 set extension-language .c c++
4430The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4431and their associated languages.
4432
4433* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4434
4435When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4436you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4437PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4438
4439 set processor NAME
4440
4441sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4442following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4443
4444 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4445 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4446 403 IBM PowerPC 403
4447 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4448 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4449 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4450 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4451 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4452 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4453 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4454 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4455
4456At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4457special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4458registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4459only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4460
4461* HP-UX support
4462
4463Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4464more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4465library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4466support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4467for xdb and dbx commands.
4468
4469* Catchpoints
4470
4471HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4472generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4473to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4474
4475This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4476argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4477output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4478
4479* Debugging across forks
4480
4481On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4482in the inferior.
4483
4484* TUI
4485
4486HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4487it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4488configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4489
4490* GDB remote protocol additions
4491
4492A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4493Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4494fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4495allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4496
4497For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4498full 64-bit address. The command
4499
4500 set remoteaddresssize 32
4501
4502can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4503the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4504will be discarded.
4505
4506In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4507command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4508
4509 maint packet heythere
4510
4511sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4512disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4513time.
4514
4515The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4516target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4517downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4518
4519* Tracing can collect general expressions
4520
4521You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4522further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4523doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4524
4525* mask-address variable for Mips
4526
4527For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4528a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4529of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4530
4531* Higher serial baud rates
4532
4533GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4534230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4535to achieve all of these rates.)
4536
4537* i960 simulator
4538
4539The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4540builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4541
4542
4543*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4544
4545* New native configurations
4546
4547Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4548Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4549Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4550PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4551PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4552Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4553Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4554
4555* New targets
4556
4557Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4558Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4559Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4560Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4561MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4562MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4563MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4564Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4565Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4566Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4567NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4568
4569* New debugging protocols
4570
4571ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4572M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4573DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4574PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4575PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4576Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4577
4578* DWARF 2
4579
4580All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4581format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4582information.
4583
4584* Java frontend
4585
4586GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4587only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4588
4589* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4590
4591For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4592loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4593locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4594
4595* Live range splitting
4596
4597GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4598range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4599more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4600
4601* Hurd support
4602
4603GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4604updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4605
4606* ARM Thumb support
4607
4608GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4609instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4610instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4611accordingly.
4612
4613* MIPS16 support
4614
4615GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4616instruction set.
4617
4618* Overlay support
4619
4620GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4621linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4622will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4623control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4624additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4625in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4626
4627* info symbol
4628
4629The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4630the symbol at the specified address.
4631
4632* Trace support
4633
4634The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4635asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4636extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4637includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4638file tracepoint.c for more details.
4639
4640* MIPS simulator
4641
4642Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4643by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4644of most MIPS variants.
4645
4646* Sparc simulator
4647
4648Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4649by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4650Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4651
4652* set architecture
4653
4654For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4655basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4656architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4657the possible architectures.
4658
4659*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4660
4661* New native configurations
4662
4663Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4664M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4665PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4666PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4667PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4668RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4669
4670* New targets
4671
4672ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4673I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4674MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4675MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4676PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4677Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4678Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4679
4680* PowerPC simulator
4681
4682The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4683contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4684PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4685basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4686performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4687
4688* Solaris 2.5
4689
4690GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4691
4692* Windows 95/NT native
4693
4694GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4695To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4696which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4697Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4698ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4699
4700* dont-repeat command
4701
4702If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4703command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4704useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4705extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4706
4707* Send break instead of ^C
4708
4709The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4710rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4711GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4712
4713* Remote protocol timeout
4714
4715The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4716that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4717to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4718
4719* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4720
4721By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4722loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4723stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4724when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4725in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4726
4727Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4728/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4729automatically on hpux10.
4730
4731* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4732
4733Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4734
4735* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4736
4737When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4738may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4739the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4740every character. The default value is 1050.
4741
4742* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4743
4744If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4745a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4746replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4747details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4748remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4749to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4750
4751* Speedups for remote debugging
4752
4753GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4754the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4755and more efficient S-record downloading.
4756
4757* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4758
4759GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4760Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4761
4762*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4763
4764* Psymtabs for XCOFF
4765
4766The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4767can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4768
4769* Remote targets use caching
4770
4771Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4772remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4773it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4774debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4775off' turns the the data cache off.
4776
4777* Remote targets may have threads
4778
4779The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4780in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4781gdb/remote.c for details.
4782
4783* NetROM support
4784
4785If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4786support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4787acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4788write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4789support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4790another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4791sequence is something like
4792
4793 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4794 load <prog>
4795 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4796
4797* Macintosh host
4798
4799GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4800may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4801it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4802available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4803device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4804directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4805scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4806mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4807
4808* Autoconf
4809
4810GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4811but does simplify configuration and building.
4812
4813* hpux10
4814
4815GDB now supports hpux10.
4816
4817*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4818
4819* New native configurations
4820
4821x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4822x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4823NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4824Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4825
4826* New targets
4827
4828A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4829HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4830CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4831PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4832WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4833
4834* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4835
4836GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4837possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4838filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4839the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4840if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4841
4842* Arguments to user-defined commands
4843
4844User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4845Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4846trivial example:
4847define adder
4848 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4849
4850To execute the command use:
4851adder 1 2 3
4852
4853Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4854Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4855use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4856
4857* New `if' and `while' commands
4858
4859This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4860commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4861expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4862execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4863terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4864`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4865if the expression is zero.
4866
4867* Fortran source language mode
4868
4869GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4870Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4871variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4872with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4873Fortran compilers.
4874
4875* Better HPUX support
4876
4877Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4878running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4879processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4880for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4881that behavior do the following before running the program:
4882
4883 adb -w a.out
4884 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4885 control-d
4886
4887This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4888To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4889
4890 adb -w a.out
4891 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4892 control-d
4893
4894You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4895the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4896external linkage.
4897
4898GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4899HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4900
4901* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4902
4903You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4904commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4905current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4906"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4907associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4908configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4909
4910* New DOS host serial code
4911
4912This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4913no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4914a PC's serial port.
4915
4916*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4917
4918* New "complete" command
4919
4920This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4921were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4922
4923* Trailing space optional in prompt
4924
4925"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4926allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4927
4928* Breakpoint hit counts
4929
4930"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4931has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4932can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4933to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4934less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4935that breakpoint.
4936
4937* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4938
4939"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4940an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4941arrays actually contain only short strings.
4942
4943* Shared library breakpoints
4944
4945In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4946breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4947
4948* Hardware watchpoints
4949
4950There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4951targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4952
55241689 4953Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
4954
4955* Annotations
4956
4957Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4958and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4959
4960* Improved Irix 5 support
4961
4962GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4963
4964* Improved HPPA support
4965
4966GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4967
4968* New native configurations
4969
4970Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4971HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4972Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4973RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4974
4975* New targets
4976
4977OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4978MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4979Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4980
4981* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4982
4983There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4984This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4985
4986* Fixes
4987
4988As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4989and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4990
4991*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4992
4993* Irix 5 is now supported
4994
4995* HPPA support
4996
4997GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4998to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4999GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
5000of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
5001can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
5002
5003
5004*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
5005
5006* User visible changes:
5007
5008* Remote Debugging
5009
5010The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
5011target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
5012debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
5013integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
5014debugging info for the mips target).
5015
5016* DEC Alpha native support
5017
5018GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
5019debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
5020work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
5021Alpha-specific notes.
5022
5023* Preliminary thread implementation
5024
5025GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
5026
5027* LynxOS native and target support for 386
5028
5029This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
5030to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
5031for details).
5032
5033* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5034
5035This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5036mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5037call methods, ...etc.
5038
5039*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5040
5041 * User visible changes:
5042
5043Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5044supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5045other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5046somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5047
5048Filename completion now works.
5049
5050When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5051arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5052addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5053
5054All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5055vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5056should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5057your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5058to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5059
5060 * DEC alpha support
5061
5062This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5063cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5064
5065
5066*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5067
5068 * Testsuite
5069
5070This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5071The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5072via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5073
5074 * C++ demangling
5075
5076'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5077emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5078Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5079disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5080use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5081
5082 * Simulators
5083
5084GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5085So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5086Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5087
5088 * New targets supported
5089
5090H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5091H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5092SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5093Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5094IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5095
5096Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5097version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5098GO32 memory extender.
5099
5100 * New remote protocols
5101
5102MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5103
5104 * New source languages supported
5105
5106This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5107used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5108into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5109
5110
5111*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5112
5113 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5114
5115GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5116version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5117University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5118compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5119format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5120(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5121
5122Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5123
5124 * Faster and better demangling
5125
5126We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5127demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5128character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5129only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5130This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5131increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5132symbol lookups.
5133
5134`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5135from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5136compiler does not actually implement.
5137
5138 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5139
5140In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5141inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5142recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5143very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5144The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5145circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5146fix.
5147
5148The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5149release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5150
5151 * Improved configure script
5152
5153The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5154you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5155host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5156done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5157
5158We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5159version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5160`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5161The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5162only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5163We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5164
5165 * Documentation improvements
5166
5167There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5168produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5169before submitting changes.
5170
5171The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5172M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5173`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5174you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5175a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5176
5177*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5178We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5179been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5180or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5181`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5182around this problem.
5183
5184 * New features
5185
5186GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5187the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5188`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5189the target program.
5190
5191The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5192how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5193
5194 * New native hosts supported
5195
5196HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5197386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5198
5199 * New targets supported
5200
5201AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5202
5203 * New file formats supported
5204
5205BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5206HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5207
5208 * Major bug fixes
5209
5210Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5211
5212We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5213printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5214
5215We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5216for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5217release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5218
5219You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5220will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5221
5222We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5223for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5224especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5225libraries.
5226
5227The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5228information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5229command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5230any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5231when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5232
5233 * Internal improvements
5234
5235GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5236debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5237
5238GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5239Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5240symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5241contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5242shared code that handles any of them.
5243
5244 * New command line options
5245
5246We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5247
5248 * Mmalloc licensing
5249
5250The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5251General Public License.
5252
5253*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5254
5255 * Host/native/target split
5256
5257GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5258hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5259target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5260local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5261ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5262
5263The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5264GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5265is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5266code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5267any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5268built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5269handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5270
5271GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5272It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5273plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5274
5275 * New hosts supported
5276
5277HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5278386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5279386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5280
5281 * New targets supported
5282
5283Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
528468030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5285
5286 * New native hosts supported
5287
5288386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5289 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5290386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5291
5292 * New file formats supported
5293
5294BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5295supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5296format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5297
5298 * New commands
5299
5300`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5301`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5302These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5303
5304`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5305
5306You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5307scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5308prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5309executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5310
5311 * C++ improvements
5312
5313We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5314info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5315symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5316
5317Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5318
5319 * Major bug fixes
5320
5321The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5322fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5323by the compiler.
5324
5325We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5326support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5327
5328John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5329slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5330that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5331purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5332the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5333mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5334
5335Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5336about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5337completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5338we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5339
5340 * AMD 29k support
5341
5342A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5343specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5344calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5345usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5346in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5347
5348We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5349Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5350of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5351resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5352
5353 * Remote interfaces
5354
5355We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5356with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5357message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5358This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5359needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5360breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5361each instruction being stepped through.
5362
5363The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5364registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5365
5366There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5367find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5368Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5369processor with a serial port.
5370
5371 * Configuration
5372
5373Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5374`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5375supported, and what files each one uses.
5376
5377 * Library changes
5378
5379There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5380disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5381Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5382disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5383
5384The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5385Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5386can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5387grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5388
5389 * Documentation
5390
5391The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5392reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5393as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5394encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5395system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5396bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5397
5398And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5399
5400
5401*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5402
5403 * Better support for C++ function names
5404
5405GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5406names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5407(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5408single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5409Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5410
5411GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5412the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5413You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5414lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5415for the list of formats.
5416
5417 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5418
5419Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5420C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5421directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5422can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5423usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5424about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5425this problem.)
5426
5427 * New 'maintenance' command
5428
5429All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5430the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5431can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5432
5433 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5434 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5435 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5436 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5437 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5438 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5439
5440The following commands are new:
5441
5442 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5443 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5444 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5445
5446 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5447
5448We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5449(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5450be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5451read after argv processing.
5452
5453 * New hosts supported
5454
5455Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5456
55241689 5457GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
5458
5459We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5460is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5461for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5462masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5463fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5464It costs extra.
5465
5466 * New targets supported
5467
5468Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5469
5470 * More smarts about finding #include files
5471
5472GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5473all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5474greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5475especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5476the one that contains your sources.
5477
5478We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5479breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5480try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5481
5482 * Interesting infernals change
5483
5484GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5485section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5486target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5487stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5488
5489 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5490
5491There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5492 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5493 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5494
5495See the ChangeLog for details.
5496
5497*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5498
5499 * New machines supported (host and target)
5500
5501IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5502
5503SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5504
5505 * New malloc package
5506
5507GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5508Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5509capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5510This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5511pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5512more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5513
5514 * info proc
5515
5516The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5517'help info proc' for details.
5518
5519 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5520
5521The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5522Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5523possible.
5524
5525 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5526
5527Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5528support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5529conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5530environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5531that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5532in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5533
5534 * Cross byte order fixes
5535
5536Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5537targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5538
5539 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5540
5541If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5542system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5543`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5544program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5545called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5546Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5547and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5548the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5549option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5550starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5551
5552You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5553the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5554information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5555slower, but makes future operations faster.
5556
5557The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5558build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5559A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5560use is:
5561
5562 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5563
5564The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5565It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5566shared across multiple host platforms.
5567
5568 * longjmp() handling
5569
5570GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5571siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5572all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5573platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5574
5575 * Solaris 2.0
5576
5577Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5578this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5579reading symbols.
5580
5581 * Bug fixes
5582
5583As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5584People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5585crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5586
5587*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5588
5589 * New machines supported (host and target)
5590
5591SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5592 (except core files)
5593BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5594Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5595
5596 * New machines supported (target)
5597
5598AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5599
5600 * C++ support
5601
5602GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5603The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5604per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5605
5606GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5607`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5608extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5609good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5610will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5611released.
5612
5613 * New features for SVR4
5614
5615GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5616shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5617only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5618
5619The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5620on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5621it prints the address mappings of the process.
5622
5623If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5624bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5625
5626 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5627
5628Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5629now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5630skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5631make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5632same code linked statically.
5633
5634 * New Getopt
5635
5636GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5637version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5638continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5639Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5640added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5641future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5642
5643 * Bugs fixed
5644
5645The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5646Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5647See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5648
5649
5650*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5651
5652 * New machines supported (host and target)
5653
5654Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5655NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5656Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5657
5658 * Almost SCO Unix support
5659
5660We had hoped to support:
5661SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5662(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5663that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5664about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5665
5666 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5667
5668GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5669debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5670is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5671send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5672reqired (if any).
5673
5674 * New Readline
5675
5676GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5677is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5678required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5679
5680 * Bugs fixed
5681
5682The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5683Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5684See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5685
5686 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5687
5688GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5689supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5690symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5691
5692Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5693mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5694debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5695mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5696version 2.
5697
5698Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5699really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5700line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5701variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5702situation somewhat.
5703
5704When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5705However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5706methods.
5707
5708We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5709DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5710encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5711
5712
5713*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5714
5715 * Improved configuration
5716
5717Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5718Porting BFD is simpler.
5719
5720 * Stepping improved
5721
5722The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5723of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5724in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5725function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5726
5727 * Bug fixing
5728
5729Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5730
5731 * New host supported (not target)
5732
5733Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5734
5735
5736*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5737
5738 * Multiple source language support
5739
5740GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5741It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5742and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5743language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5744You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5745`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5746
5747 * GDB and Modula-2
5748
5749GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5750currently under development at the State University of New York at
5751Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5752continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5753
5754Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5755debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5756symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5757
5758There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5759in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5760
5761 * set write on/off
5762
5763GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5764a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5765the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5766by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5767effect immediately.
5768
5769 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5770
5771When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5772shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5773The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5774examining core files.
5775
5776 * set listsize
5777
5778You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5779The default is 10.
5780
5781 * New machines supported (host and target)
5782
5783SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5784Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5785Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5786
5787 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5788
5789IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5790
5791 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5792
5793AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5794AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5795Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5796
5797 * New remote interfaces
5798
5799AMD 29000 Adapt
5800AMD 29000 Minimon
5801
5802
5803*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5804
5805 * New Facilities
5806
5807Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5808
5809Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5810target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5811is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5812remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5813remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5814also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5815using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5816stub on the target system.
5817
5818New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5819
5820GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5821library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5822object file types such as a.out and coff.
5823
5824There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5825refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5826
5827
5828 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5829
5830All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5831by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5832
5833For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5834``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5835Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5836
5837What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5838print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5839will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5840all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5841
5842confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5843 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5844 it is already running. Default is ON.
5845
5846editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5847 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5848 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5849 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5850 Default is ON.
5851
5852history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5853 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5854 or the value of the environment variable
5855 GDBHISTFILE.
5856
5857history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5858 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5859 HISTSIZE.
5860
5861history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5862 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5863 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5864
5865history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5866 history expansion will be performed on
5867 command line input. The default is OFF.
5868
5869radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5870 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5871 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5872
5873height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5874 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5875 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5876 variable TERM.
5877
5878width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5879 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5880 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5881 variable TERM.
5882
5883Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5884``set width'' instead.
5885
5886print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5887 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5888 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5889 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5890
5891print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5892 is OFF.
5893
5894print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5895 "raw" form if off.
5896
5897print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5898 like instructions.
5899
5900print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5901
5902
5903 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5904
5905The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5906new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5907are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5908window.
5909
5910
5911 * Support for Shared Libraries
5912
5913GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5914Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5915before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5916happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5917At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5918from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5919shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5920It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5921
5922sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5923 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5924 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5925
5926info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5927
5928
5929 * Watchpoints
5930
5931A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5932expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5933tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5934quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5935problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5936more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5937
5938watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5939
5940info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5941
5942delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5943disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5944enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5945
5946
5947 * C++ multiple inheritance
5948
5949When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5950for C++ programs.
5951
5952 * C++ exception handling
5953
5954Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5955ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5956the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5957handler's context).
5958
5959catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5960 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5961 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5962
5963info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5964 current stack frame.
5965
5966
5967 * Minor command changes
5968
5969The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5970command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5971is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5972
5973The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5974at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5975frames without printing.
5976
5977 * New directory command
5978
5979'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5980The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5981about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5982with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5983find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5984
5985 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5986
5987For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5988for more details.
5989
5990GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5991two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5992Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5993where the program that you are debugging will run.
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