include/elf/
[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 7.1
5
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6* Windows Thread Information Block access.
7
8 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
9 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
10 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
11 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
12 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
13 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
14
15* New remote packets
16
17qGetTIBAddr
18
19 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
20
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21* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
22 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
23 a directory.
24
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25* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
26
27 - GDBserver now support tracepoints. The feature is currently
28 supported by the i386-linux and amd64-linux builds.
29
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30* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
31 it understands register description.
32
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33* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
34
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35* X86 general purpose registers
36
37 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
38 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
39 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
40 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
41 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
42
95a42b64 43* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
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44 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
45 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
46 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
47 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
48 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 49
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50* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
51 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
52 in the specified file.
53
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54* New commands
55
56save breakpoints <filename>
57 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
58 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
59 definitions, use the `source' command.
60
61`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
62is now deprecated.
63
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64* Python scripting
65
adc36818 66** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
fa33c3cd 67 tables, program spaces, and frame's code blocks.
f870a310 68
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69** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
70 gdb.progspaces, and gdb.current_progspace.
71
72** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 73
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74** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
75 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
76 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
77
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78* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
79there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
80tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
81regular breakpoints.
82
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83* New targets
84
85ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
86
bfbf3774 87*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 88
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89* C++ Improvements
90
91 ** Namespace Support
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92
93 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
94 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
95 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
96 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
97 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
98
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99 ** Bug Fixes
100
101 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
102 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
103 qualified name.
104
105 ** Cast Operators
106
107 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
108 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
109
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110* New targets
111
112Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 113Renesas RX rx-*-elf
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114
115* New Simulators
116
117Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 118Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 119
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120* Multi-program debugging.
121
122 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
123 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
124 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
125 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
126 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
127 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
128 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
129 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
130
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131* New tracing features
132
133 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
134
135 ** Trace state variables
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136
137 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
138 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
139 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
140 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
141 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
142 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
143 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
144 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
145 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
146 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 147
d5551862 148 ** Fast tracepoints
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149
150 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
151 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
152 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
153 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
154 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
155 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
156 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
157 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
158 the regular trace command.
159
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160 ** Disconnected tracing
161
162 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
163 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
164 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
165 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
166 connection is lost unexpectedly.
167
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168 ** Trace files
169
170 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
171 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
172 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
173 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
174 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
175 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
176 <name>".
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177
178 ** Circular trace buffer
179
180 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
181 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
182 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
183 not be available for all target agents.
184
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185* Changed commands
186
187disassemble
188 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
189 the arguments to be comma-separated.
190
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191info variables
192 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
193 which only declare a variable are not shown.
194
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195source
196 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
197 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
198 support.
199
200 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
201 "set script-extension" (see below).
202
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203* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
204
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205record save [<FILENAME>]
206 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
207 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
208
209record restore <FILENAME>
210 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
211 earlier time, for replay debugging.
212
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213add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
214 Add a new inferior.
215
216clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
217 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
218 inferior has loaded.
219
220remove-inferior ID
221 Remove an inferior.
222
223maint info program-spaces
224 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
225
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226set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
227show remote interrupt-sequence
228 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
229 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
230 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
231 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
232 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
233
234set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
235show remote interrupt-on-connect
236 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
237 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
238 Linux kernel.
239
240set remotebreak [on | off]
241show remotebreak
242Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
243
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244tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
245 Create or modify a trace state variable.
246
247info tvariables
248 List trace state variables and their values.
249
250delete tvariable $NAME ...
251 Delete one or more trace state variables.
252
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253teval EXPR, ...
254 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
255 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
256
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257ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
258 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
259
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260* New expression syntax
261
262 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
263 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
264
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265* New options
266
267set follow-exec-mode new|same
268show follow-exec-mode
269 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
270 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
271 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
272
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273set default-collect EXPR, ...
274show default-collect
275 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
276 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
277 such as registers or a critical global variable.
278
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279set disconnected-tracing
280show disconnected-tracing
281 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
282 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
283 upon disconnection.
284
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285set circular-trace-buffer
286show circular-trace-buffer
287 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
288 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
289 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
290 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
291
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292set script-extension off|soft|strict
293show script-extension
294 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
295 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
296 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
297 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
298 evaluation failed.
299 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
300
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301set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
302show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
303 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
304 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
305 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
306 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
307 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
308 is on.
309
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310* Python API Improvements
311
312 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
313 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
314 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
315
316 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
317 `is_base_class' attribute.
318
319 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
320
321 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
322 evaluate an expression.
323
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324* New remote packets
325
326QTDV
327 Define a trace state variable.
328
329qTV
330 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
331
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332QTDisconnected
333 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
334
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335QTBuffer:circular
336 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
337
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338qTfP, qTsP
339 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
340
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341* Bug fixes
342
343Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
344
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345Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
346much more reliable. In particular:
347 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
348 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
349 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
350 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
351 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
352 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
353 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
354 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
355 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
356 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
357 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
358 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
359 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
360 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
361 non-threaded programs.
362
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363PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
364This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
365libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
366executable program.
367
abc7453d 368*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 369
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370* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
371dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
372them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
373for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
374"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
375
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376* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
377breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
378or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
379the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
380for tracepoint actions.
381
e6158f16 382* "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
7280022e 383in hex as well as in symbolic form.
e6158f16 384
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385* Process record and replay
386
387 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
388 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
389 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
390 execute commands.
391
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392* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
393step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
394set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
395reverse execution.
396
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397* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
398feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3992.6.28 or later.
400
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401* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
402target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
403char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
404literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
405U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
406`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
407system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
408the installation instructions for more information.
409
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410* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
411remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
412with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
413the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
414
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415* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
416and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
417
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418* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
419now complete on file names.
420
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421* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
422completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
423For instance, consider:
424
425 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
426 # struct example variable;
427 (gdb) p variable.
428
429If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
430completions will be "f1" and "f2".
431
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432* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
433the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
434
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435* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
436operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
437macros.
438
47a3467a 439* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
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440the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
441implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
442
443* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
444registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
445can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
446and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 447
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448* New remote packets
449
450qSearch:memory:
451 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
452
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453QStartNoAckMode
454 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
455 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
456 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
457
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458vKill
459 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
460 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
461
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462qXfer:osdata:read
463 Obtains additional operating system information
464
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465qXfer:siginfo:read
466qXfer:siginfo:write
467 Read or write additional signal information.
468
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469* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
470
471 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
472 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
473 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
474
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475* The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
476source+assembly.
477
c055b101 478* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 479DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
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480
481* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
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482and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
483`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 484
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485* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
486with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
487
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488* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
489
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490* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
491
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492* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
493which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
494
1fddbabb 495* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 496list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 497
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498* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
499conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
500have also been fixed.
501
bfb8797a 502* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
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503From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
504are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 505
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506* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
507example, given:
508
509 template<typename T> class C { };
510 C<char const *> c;
511
512GDB will now correctly handle all of:
513
514 ptype C<char const *>
515 ptype C<char const*>
516 ptype C<const char *>
517 ptype C<const char*>
518
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519* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
520
521 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
522 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
523
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524 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
525 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
526 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
527
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528 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
529 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
530
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531 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
532 gdbserver.
533
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534 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
535 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
536
537 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
538 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
539 as appropriate.
540
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541* Python scripting
542
543 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
544 available is determined at configure time.
545
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546 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
547
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548* Ada tasking support
549
550 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
551 been introduced:
552
553 info tasks
554 Print the list of Ada tasks.
555 info task N
556 Print detailed information about task number N.
557 task
558 Print the task number of the current task.
559 task N
560 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
561
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562* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
563add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
564
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565* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
566
567 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
568 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
569 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
570 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
571 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
572 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
573 below.
574
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575* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
576"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
577information.
578
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579* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
580to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
581architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
582See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
583more information.
584
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585* Multi-architecture debugging.
586
587 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
588 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
589 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
590 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
591 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
592
593* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
594use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
595Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
596powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
597--enable-targets configure option.
598
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599* Non-stop mode debugging.
600
601 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
602 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
603 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
604 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
605 section in the user manual for more information.
606
607 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
608 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
609 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
610 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
611 extensions on linux targets.
612
d7713ae0 613* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 614
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615catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
616 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
617 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
618 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
619 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
620 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
621 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
622 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
623 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
624
08388c79
DE
625find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
626 val1 [, val2, ...]
627 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
628
d57a3c85
TJB
629maint set python print-stack
630maint show python print-stack
631 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
632
633python [CODE]
634 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
635
d7713ae0
EZ
636macro define
637macro list
638macro undef
639 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
640 interactively.
641
642info os processes
643 Show operating system information about processes.
644
2277426b
PA
645info inferiors
646 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
647
648inferior NUM
649 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
650
651detach inferior NUM
652 Detach from inferior number NUM.
653
654kill inferior NUM
655 Kill inferior number NUM.
656
d7713ae0
EZ
657* New options
658
3285f3fe
UW
659set spu stop-on-load
660show spu stop-on-load
661 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
662
ff1a52c6
UW
663set spu auto-flush-cache
664show spu auto-flush-cache
665 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
666 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
667
d7713ae0
EZ
668set sh calling-convention
669show sh calling-convention
670 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
671
e0a3ce09 672set debug timestamp
75feb17d 673show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
674 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
675
676set disassemble-next-line
677show disassemble-next-line
678 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
679 the debuggee stops.
680
681set remote noack-packet
682show remote noack-packet
683 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
684 under "New remote packets."
685
686set remote query-attached-packet
687show remote query-attached-packet
688 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
689
690set remote read-siginfo-object
691show remote read-siginfo-object
692 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
693 packet.
694
695set remote write-siginfo-object
696show remote write-siginfo-object
697 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
698 packet.
699
40ab02ce
MS
700set remote reverse-continue
701show remote reverse-continue
702 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
703
704set remote reverse-step
705show remote reverse-step
706 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
707
d7713ae0
EZ
708set displaced-stepping
709show displaced-stepping
710 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
711 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
712 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
713
714set debug displaced
715show debug displaced
716 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
717
718maint set internal-error
719maint show internal-error
720 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
721
722maint set internal-warning
723maint show internal-warning
724 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 725
ccd213ac
DJ
726set exec-wrapper
727show exec-wrapper
728unset exec-wrapper
729 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 730
aad4b048
JB
731set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
732show multiple-symbols
733 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
734 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
735 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
736
74960c60
VP
737set breakpoint always-inserted
738show breakpoint always-inserted
739 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
740 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
741 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
742
0428b8f5
DJ
743set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
744show arm fallback-mode
745set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
746show arm force-mode
747 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
748 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
749 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
750 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
751
10568435
JK
752set disable-randomization
753show disable-randomization
754 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
755 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
756 multiple debugging sessions.
757
d7713ae0
EZ
758set non-stop
759show non-stop
760 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
761 a breakpoint.
762
b3eb342c 763set target-async
d7713ae0 764show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
765 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
766 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
767 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
768 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
769
6c7a06a3
TT
770set target-wide-charset
771show target-wide-charset
772 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
773 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
774
84603566
SL
775set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
776show tcp auto-retry
777set tcp connect-timeout
778show tcp connect-timeout
779 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
780 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
781 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
782
17a37d48
PP
783set libthread-db-search-path
784show libthread-db-search-path
785 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
786 libthread_db.
787
d4db2f36
PA
788set schedule-multiple (on|off)
789show schedule-multiple
790 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
791 the current process.
792
4e5d721f
DE
793set stack-cache
794show stack-cache
795 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
796 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
797 affecting correctness.
798
910c5da8
JB
799set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
800show interactive-mode
801 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
802 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
803 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
804 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
805 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
806
2277426b
PA
807* Removed commands
808
809info forks
810 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
811 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
812 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
813 command.
814
815fork NUM
816 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
817 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
818 alias for the `fork' command.
819
820process PID
821 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
822 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
823 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
824
825delete fork NUM
826 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
827 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
828 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
829 fork' command.
830
831detach fork NUM
832 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
833 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
834 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
835 fork' command.
836
a80b95ba
TG
837* New native configurations
838
839x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
840
b8bfd3ed
JB
841x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
842
75a2d5e7
TT
843* New targets
844
c28c63d8 845Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 846x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 847x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 848S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 849
6de3146c
PA
850* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
851 (mingw32ce) debugging.
852
d5cbbe6e
JB
853* Removed commands
854
855catch load
856catch unload
857 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
858
75feb17d 859*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 860
af5ca30d
NH
861* New native configurations
862
863NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 864Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
865
866* New targets
867
868NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 869Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 870
7a404eba
PA
871* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
872
873 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
874 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
875 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
876 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
877
430ebac9
PA
878* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
879(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
880
fe6fbf8b 881* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 882is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
883
884* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
885including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
886and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 887
10665d76
JB
888* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
889accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
890more than one contiguous range of addresses.
891
7cc46491
DJ
892* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
893
d71340b8
DJ
894* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
895registers on PowerPC targets.
896
523c4513
DJ
897* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
898targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
899
a6b151f1
DJ
900* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
901commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
902
2d717e4f
DJ
903* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
904extended-remote mode.
905
24a836bd 906* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
907The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
908error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
909The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 910
d0c678e6
UW
911* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
912building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
913target architectures.
914
d64a946d
TJB
915* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
916Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
917now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
918stored in two consecutive float registers.
919
ee163bf5
VP
920* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
921breakpoints now.
922
b93b6ca7 923* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
924Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
925include:
b93b6ca7
JB
926 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
927 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
928 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
929 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
930 of an assignment
931 - Improved command completion in Ada
932 - Several bug fixes
933
d001be7a
DJ
934* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
935process.
936
a6b151f1
DJ
937* New commands
938
6d53d0af
JB
939set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
940show print frame-arguments
941 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
942 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
943
a6b151f1
DJ
944remote put
945remote get
946remote delete
947 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
948
949* New MI commands
950
951-target-file-put
952-target-file-get
953-target-file-delete
954 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
955
956* New remote packets
957
958vFile:open:
959vFile:close:
960vFile:pread:
961vFile:pwrite:
962vFile:unlink:
963 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 964
2d717e4f
DJ
965vAttach
966 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
967 mode.
968
969vRun
970 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
971
8d5f9c6f 972*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 973
19d378fc
MS
974* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
975bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
976Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
977
3a40aaa0
UW
978* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
979symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
980-Bsymbolic linker option.
981
a6ec25f2
BW
982* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
983recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
984is not supported.
985
6dd09645
JB
986* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
987frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
988
c9bb8148
DJ
989* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
99032-bit or 64-bit register values.
991
0d5de010
DJ
992* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
993
23181151
DJ
994* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
995target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
996a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
997
ea37ba09
DJ
998* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
999automatically displayed as character or string data.
1000
1001* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1002arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1003as strings.
e1f48ead 1004
123dc839
DJ
1005* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1006for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1007only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1008
05a4558a
DJ
1009* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1010iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1011
7c963485
PA
1012* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1013ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1014has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1015
b18be20d
DJ
1016* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1017
0ca420ce
UW
1018* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1019
31d99776
DJ
1020* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1021layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1022segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1023
a4642986
MR
1024* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1025immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1026
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1027* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1028"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1029packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1030where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1031Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1032
1033* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1034(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1035
1036* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1037according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1038
c9bb8148
DJ
1039* New commands
1040
23776285
MR
1041set remoteflow
1042show remoteflow
1043 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1044 when debugging using remote targets.
1045
c9bb8148
DJ
1046set mem inaccessible-by-default
1047show mem inaccessible-by-default
1048 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1049 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1050 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1051 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1052 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1053
1054set breakpoint auto-hw
1055show breakpoint auto-hw
1056 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1057 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1058 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1059 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1060 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1061 including "next" and "finish".
1062
0e420bd8
JB
1063catch exception
1064catch exception unhandled
1065 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1066
1067catch assert
1068 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1069
f822c95b
DJ
1070set sysroot
1071show sysroot
1072 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1073 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1074 an alias to "set sysroot".
1075
83cc5c53
UW
1076info spu
1077 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1078 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1079 architecture.
1080
bd372731
MK
1081* New native configurations
1082
1083OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1084
23181151
DJ
1085set tdesc filename
1086unset tdesc filename
1087show tdesc filename
1088 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1089 not query the target for its built-in description.
1090
c9bb8148
DJ
1091* New targets
1092
54fe9172 1093OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1094MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1095Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1096
6dd09645
JB
1097* New remote packets
1098
1099QPassSignals:
1100 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1101 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1102
23181151
DJ
1103qXfer:features:read:
1104 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1105 features.
6dd09645 1106
83cc5c53
UW
1107qXfer:spu:read:
1108qXfer:spu:write:
1109 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1110 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1111
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1112qXfer:libraries:read:
1113 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1114 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1115 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1116 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1117
483367ee
DJ
1118* Removed targets
1119
1120Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1121
d08950c4
UW
1122alpha*-*-osf1*
1123alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1124d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1125hppa*-*-hiux*
1126i[34567]86-ncr-*
1127i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1128i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1129i[34567]86-*-netware*
1130i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1131i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1132i[34567]86-*-sco*
1133i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1134i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1135i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1136i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1137i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1138i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1139i[34567]86-*-isc*
1140m68*-cisco*-*
1141m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1142mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1143rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1144sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1145
7ce59000
DJ
1146* Other removed features
1147
1148target abug
1149target cpu32bug
1150target est
1151target rom68k
1152
1153 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1154
ea35711c
DJ
1155target hms
1156target e7000
1157target sh3
1158target sh3e
1159
1160 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1161 H8/300.
1162
1163target ocd
1164
1165 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1166 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1167 interfaces.
1168
7ce59000
DJ
1169DWARF 1 support
1170
1171 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1172 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1173
54d61198
DJ
1174Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1175
1176 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1177 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1178 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1179 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1180
ea35711c
DJ
1181MIPS ".pdr" sections
1182
1183 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1184 in debugging information.
1185
1186Scheme support
1187
1188 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1189 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1190
1a69e1e4
DJ
1191set mips stack-arg-size
1192set mips saved-gpreg-size
1193
1194 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1195
6dd09645 1196*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 1197
ca3bf3bd
DJ
1198* New targets
1199
1200Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 1201Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 1202
6aec2e11
DJ
1203* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1204(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1205running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1206
1207* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1208Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1209supported.
1210
17218d91
DJ
1211* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1212broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1213
9ebce043
DJ
1214* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1215stub provides the required support.
1216
7d3d3ece
DJ
1217* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1218longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1219
4f8253f3
JB
1220* New commands
1221
1222set substitute-path
1223unset substitute-path
1224show substitute-path
1225 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1226 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1227 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1228 between compilation and debugging.
1229
9fa66fd7
AS
1230set trace-commands
1231show trace-commands
1232 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1233 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1234 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1235
1f5befc1
DJ
1236* REMOVED features
1237
1238The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1239
2ec3381a
DJ
1240Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1241an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1242
3d00d119
DJ
1243The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1244
be2a5f71
DJ
1245* New remote packets
1246
1247qSupported:
1248 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1249 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1250 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1251 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1252 target.
1253
0876f84a
DJ
1254qXfer:auxv:read:
1255 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1256 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1257
9ebce043
DJ
1258qXfer:memory-map:read:
1259 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1260 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1261
1262vFlashErase:
1263vFlashWrite:
1264vFlashDone:
1265 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1266
0876f84a
DJ
1267* Removed remote packets
1268
1269qPart:auxv:read:
1270 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1271 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1272
e374b601 1273*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 1274
96309189
MS
1275* New targets
1276
1277Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1278
1279Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1280
53e5f3cf
AS
1281* New commands
1282
1283init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1284 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1285
ac264b3b
MS
1286The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1287
1288checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1289
1290restart <n> Return the program state to a
1291 previously saved state.
1292
1293info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1294
1295delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1296
1297set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1298 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1299
1300info forks List forks of the user program that
1301 are available to be debugged.
1302
1303fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1304 forks of the user program that are
1305 available to be debugged.
1306
1307delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1308 that are available to be debugged (and
1309 kill the forked process).
1310
1311detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1312 that are available to be debugged (and
1313 allow the process to continue).
1314
3950dc3f
NS
1315* New architecture
1316
1317Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1318
0ea3f30e
DJ
1319* Improved Windows host support
1320
1321GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1322native console support, and remote communications using either
1323network sockets or serial ports.
1324
f79daebb
GM
1325* Improved Modula-2 language support
1326
1327GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1328basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1329pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1330printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1331written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1332GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1333
acab6ab2
MM
1334* REMOVED features
1335
1336The ARM rdi-share module.
1337
f4267320
DJ
1338The Netware NLM debug server.
1339
53e5f3cf 1340*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 1341
e0ecbda1
MK
1342* New native configurations
1343
02a677ac 1344OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
1345OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1346
d64a6579
KB
1347* New targets
1348
1349Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1350
b33a6190
AS
1351* New command line options
1352
1353--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1354--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1355 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1356--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1357 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1358 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1359 with the --command (-x) option.
1360
11dced61
AC
1361* Deprecated commands removed
1362
1363The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1364removed:
1365
1366 Command Replacement
1367 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1368 othernames set arm disassembler
1369 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1370 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1371 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1372 regs info registers
1373
6fe85783
MK
1374* New BSD user-level threads support
1375
1376It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1377library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1378configurations are:
1379
1380FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1381FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1382OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1383
1384Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1385are not yet supported.
1386
5260ca71
MS
1387* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1388(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1389
e84ecc99
AC
1390* REMOVED configurations and files
1391
1392VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 1393Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 1394National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 1395
31e35378
JB
1396* New "set print array-indexes" command
1397
1398After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1399when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1400behavior.
1401
e85e5c83
MK
1402* VAX floating point support
1403
1404GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1405
d91e9901
AS
1406* User-defined command support
1407
1408In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1409to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1410section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1411
f2cb65ca
MC
1412*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1413
f47b1503
AS
1414* New command line option
1415
1416GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1417debugging.
1418
f2cb65ca
MC
1419* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1420
1421GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1422information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1423by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1424proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1425to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 1426
d08c0230
AC
1427* Internationalization
1428
1429When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1430internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1431continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1432
117ea3cf
PH
1433* Ada
1434
1435Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1436implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1437into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1438
d08c0230
AC
1439* New native configurations
1440
1441GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1442
1443* Remote 'p' packet
1444
1445GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1446packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1447
1448* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1449
1450GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1451The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1452features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1453i386 application).
1454
1455GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1456compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1457continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1458configurations:
1459
1460hppa-*-hpux
1461ia64-*-aix
1462mips-*-irix*
1463*-*-lynx
1464mips-*-linux-gnu
1465sds protocol
1466xdr protocol
1467powerpc bdm protocol
1468
1469Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1470made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1471
1472* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1473
1474Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1475been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1476configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1477permanently REMOVED.
1478
1479h8300-*-*
1480mcore-*-*
1481mn10300-*-*
1482ns32k-*-*
1483sh64-*-*
1484v850-*-*
1485
ebb7c577
AC
1486*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1487
1488* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1489
1490When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1491heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1492been fixed.
1493
1494* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1495
1496When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1497fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1498IRIX long double values).
1499
1500* VAX and "next"
1501
1502A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1503command. This problem has been fixed.
1504
860660cb 1505*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 1506
0dea2468
AC
1507* Fix for ``many threads''
1508
1509On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1510rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1511error message:
1512
1513 ptrace: No such process.
1514 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1515
1516This problem has been fixed.
1517
2c07db7a
AC
1518* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1519
1520Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1521GDB to dump core).
1522
c23968a2
JB
1523* New ``start'' command.
1524
1525This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1526
71009278
MK
1527* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1528
1529Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1530live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1531platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1532
1533FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1534FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1535NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1536NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1537NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1538OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1539OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1540OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1541OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1542
3c0b7db2
AC
1543* Signal trampoline code overhauled
1544
1545Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1546These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1547of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1548call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1549signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1550
73cc75f3
AC
1551Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1552features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1553include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 1554
7243600a
BF
1555* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1556
6f606e1c
MK
1557* New native configurations
1558
97dc871c 1559GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 1560OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
1561OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1562OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 1563OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1564NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 1565OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 1566
a1b461bf
AC
1567* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1568
1569GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1570The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1571including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1572migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1573compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1574work, was also included.
1575
1576GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1577module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1578
1579h8300-*-*
1580mcore-*-*
1581mn10300-*-*
1582ns32k-*-*
1583sh64-*-*
1584v850-*-*
1585xstormy16-*-*
1586
1587Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1588made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1589
3c7012f5
AC
1590* REMOVED configurations and files
1591
1592Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1593Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1594Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1595Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1596Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1597AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1598Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1599decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1600riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1601sonymips mips-sony-*
1602sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1603
e5fe55f7
AC
1604*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1605
1606* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1607
1608The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1609GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1610command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1611program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1612with GDB".
1613
1614* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1615
1616Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1617libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1618cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1619GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1620shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1621the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1622are created.
1623
1624Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1625
1626* Fixed ISO-C build problems
1627
1628The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1629non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1630compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1631
1632* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1633
1634Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1635wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1636
1637* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1638
1639The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1640permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1641systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1642
1643* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1644
1645Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1646has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1647
1648* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1649
1650GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1651its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1652panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1653
1654* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1655
1656When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1657by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1658not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1659
faae5abe 1660*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 1661
9175c9a3
MC
1662* Removed --with-mmalloc
1663
1664Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1665conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1666
3cc87ec0
MK
1667* Changes in AMD64 configurations
1668
1669The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1670the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1671and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1672you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1673
f0424ef6
MK
1674* Revised SPARC target
1675
1676The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1677FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
1678support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1679from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1680(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 1681
59659be2
ILT
1682* New C++ demangler
1683
1684GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1685names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1686with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1687programs.
1688
9e08b29b
DJ
1689* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1690
1691GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1692arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1693encountered these.
1694
8dfe8985
DC
1695* C++ nested types and namespaces
1696
1697GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1698improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1699is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1700Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1701namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1702"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1703frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1704if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1705GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1706
cced5e27
MK
1707* New native configurations
1708
1709NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 1710OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 1711OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
1712OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1713OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 1714
b4b4b794
KI
1715* New debugging protocols
1716
1717M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1718
7989c619
AC
1719* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1720
1721The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1722and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1723tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1724
5994185b
AC
1725* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1726
1727Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1728been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1729configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1730permanently REMOVED.
1731
1732Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1733Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1734Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1735Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1736Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1737AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1738Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
1739decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1740riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1741sonymips mips-sony-*
1742sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 1743
0ddabb4c
AC
1744* REMOVED configurations and files
1745
1746SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1747SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
1748Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1749Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1750H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1751HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1752HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1753HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1754PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 1755386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
1756Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1757 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1758 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
1759SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1760SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
1761Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1762Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 1763
c7f1390e
DJ
1764*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1765
1fe43d45
AC
1766* Objective-C
1767
1768Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1769integrated into GDB.
1770
e6beb428
AC
1771* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1772
1773DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1774information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1775By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1776backtraces.
1777
1778The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1779have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1780DWARF 2 CFI support.
1781
1782* Hosted file I/O.
1783
1784GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1785file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1786remote protocol documentation for details.
1787
1788* All targets using the new architecture framework.
1789
1790All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1791architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1792to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1793ppc32 on ppc64).
1794
1795* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1796
1797GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1798per-thread variables.
1799
1800* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1801
1802GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1803GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1804
1805* Separate debug info.
1806
1807GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1808automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1809of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1810system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1811and optional debug files.
1812
1813* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1814
1815DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1816describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1817debugger.
1818
1819GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1820for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1821
1822* Java
1823
1824A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1825Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1826considered "useable".
1827
85f8f974
DJ
1828* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1829
1830The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1831commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1832kernel.
1833
0fac0b41
DJ
1834* GDB supports logging output to a file
1835
1836There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1837used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 1838
6ad8ae5c
DJ
1839* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1840
1841The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1842disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1843command.
1844
e286caf2 1845* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
1846
1847The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1848registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1849
d28f9cdf
DJ
1850* Profiling support
1851
1852A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1853be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1854session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1855"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1856data, for more informative profiling results.
1857
da0f9dcd
AC
1858* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1859
1860The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1861option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 1862"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
1863
1864Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1865removed.
1866
fb9b6b35
JJ
1867Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1868Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1869Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1870 in a subsequent -var-update.
1871
954a4db8
MK
1872* New native configurations.
1873
1874FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1875
6760f9e6
JB
1876* Multi-arched targets.
1877
b4263afa 1878HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 1879Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 1880
1b831c93
AC
1881* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1882
1883Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1884been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1885configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1886permanently REMOVED.
1887
8b0e5691 1888Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 1889Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 1890H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
1891HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1892HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1893HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 1894PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
1895Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1896 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1897 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
1898Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1899Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 1900
5835abe7
NC
1901* REMOVED configurations and files
1902
1903V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
1904Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1905IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1906i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1907i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1908i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1909HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1910 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1911 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1912Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1913Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1914Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1915OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1916I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 1917
a094c6fb
AC
1918* MIPS $fp behavior changed
1919
1920The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1921the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1922context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1923address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1924The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1925
299ffc64 1926*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 1927
46248966
AC
1928* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1929
1930When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1931`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1932in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1933library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1934shared libs like mad''.
1935
b9d14705 1936* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 1937
b9d14705
DJ
1938Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1939the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1940arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1941powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 1942
e0e9281e
JB
1943* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1944
1945GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1946and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1947they expand.
1948
dd73b9bb
AC
1949The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1950invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1951
1952The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1953macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1954
e0e9281e
JB
1955Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1956information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1957your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1958information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1959
2250ee0c
CV
1960* Multi-arched targets.
1961
6e3ba3b8
JT
1962DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1963DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 1964NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 1965National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
1966Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1967Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 1968
cd9bfe15 1969* New targets.
e33ce519 1970
456f8b9d
DB
1971Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1972
e33ce519 1973
da8ca43d
JT
1974* New native configurations
1975
1976Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 1977SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 1978MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 1979UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 1980
cd9bfe15
AC
1981* OBSOLETE configurations and files
1982
1983Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1984been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1985configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1986permanently REMOVED.
1987
92eb23c5 1988Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 1989OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 1990IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 1991Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 1992Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 1993Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
1994i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1995i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1996i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
1997HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1998 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
1999 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2000I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2001
db034ac5
AC
2002* OBSOLETE languages
2003
2004CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2005
cd9bfe15
AC
2006* REMOVED configurations and files
2007
2008AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2009A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2010AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2011AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2012AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2013
2014testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2015
20f01a46
DH
2016* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2017
2018This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2019commands. The default is 1024.
2020
a5941fbf
MK
2021* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2022
2023Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2024
89743e04
MS
2025* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2026
2027These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2028to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2029from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2030
9fb14e79
JB
2031* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2032
2033The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2034including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2035of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2036
2037aebb
AC
2037*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2038
2039* New targets.
2040
2041Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2042
2043* Bug fixes
2044
2045gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2046mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2047Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2048
2049gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2050dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2051Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2052
2053Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2054Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2055By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2056
2057i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2058avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2059By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2060
37057839 2061*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2062
1a703748
MS
2063* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2064
2065This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2066really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2067In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2068target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2069This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2070(notably embedded) targets.
2071
cefd4ef5
MS
2072* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2073
55241689
AC
2074This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2075process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2076GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2077hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2078
352ed7b4
MS
2079* New command line option
2080
2081GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2082
2083* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2084
2085There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2086command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2087a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2088be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2089open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2090issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2091a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2092it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2093GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2094is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2095
fe419ffc
RE
2096* Changes in ARM configurations.
2097
2098Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2099configuration is fully multi-arch.
2100
eb7cedd9
MK
2101* New native configurations
2102
fe419ffc 2103ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2104x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2105AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2106Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2107
c9f63e6b
CV
2108* New targets
2109
2110Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2111
9b4ff276
AC
2112* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2113
2114Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2115been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2116configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2117permanently REMOVED.
2118
2119AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2120A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2121AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2122AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2123AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2124
b4ceaee6 2125testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2126
e2caac18
AC
2127* REMOVED configurations and files
2128
2129TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2130WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2131PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2132PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2133PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2134Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2135Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2136 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2137SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2138Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2139Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2140ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2141Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2142
c2a727fa
TT
2143* Changes to command line processing
2144
2145The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2146for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2147
467d8519
TT
2148* Changes to key bindings
2149
2150There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2151
7072a954
AC
2152*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2153
2154Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2155
2156Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2157corrupted.
2158
2159Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2160
2161Numerous documentation fixes.
2162
2163Numerous testsuite fixes.
2164
34f47bc4 2165*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2166
2167* New native configurations
2168
2169Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2170x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2171MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2172MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2173ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2174s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2175
bf64bfd6
AC
2176* New targets
2177
def90278 2178Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2179CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2180UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2181
17e78a56 2182* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2183
2184x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2185Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2186Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2187 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2188TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2189WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2190Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2191PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2192PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2193PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2194SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
2195Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2196ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 2197Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 2198
17e78a56
AC
2199stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2200kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2201
7fcca85b
AC
2202Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2203been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2204configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2205permanently REMOVED.
2206
a196c81c 2207* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
2208
2209Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2210Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2211Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2212ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2213Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 2214ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 2215
6d6b80e5 2216* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 2217
6d6b80e5 2218GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
2219sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2220present.
2221
bf64bfd6
AC
2222* Other news:
2223
e23194cb
EZ
2224* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2225
2226* The MI enabled by default.
2227
2228The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2229revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2230engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2231using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2232which is now deprecated.
2233
2234* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2235
2236GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2237main features are supported:
2238
2239 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2240
2241 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2242 extension;
2243
2244 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2245
2246 - a Pascal expression parser.
2247
2248However, some important features are not yet supported.
2249
2250 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2251
2252 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2253
2254 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2255 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2256
2257 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2258
2259 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2260
2261* Changes in completion.
2262
2263Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2264to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2265users expect at the shell prompt.
2266
2267Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2268`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2269program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2270files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2271be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2272considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2273name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2274
2275`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2276
2277* New platform-independent commands:
2278
2279It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2280hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2281documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2282
2283* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2284
d7275149
MK
2285Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2286revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2287many threads as your system allows you to have.
2288
e23194cb
EZ
2289Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2290
d7275149
MK
2291Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2292multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
2293
2294* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
2295
2296Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2297
e23194cb
EZ
2298GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2299debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2300supported.)
2301
2302* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2303
2304Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2305breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2306implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2307put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2308and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2309registers.
2310
2311The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2312debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2313watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2314
2315* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2316
2317New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2318the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2319
2320New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2321display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2322IDT.
2323
2324New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2325from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2326New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2327a given linear address.
2328
2329GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2330program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2331which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2332
2333DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2334
6c56c069
EZ
2335It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2336
e23194cb
EZ
2337* Changes in documentation.
2338
2339All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2340Documentation License.
2341
2342Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2343manual.
2344
2345TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2346
2347Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2348manual.
2349
2350The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2351documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2352hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2353
5d6640b1
AC
2354* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2355
2356The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2357``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2358contents of this file.
2359
1a1d8446
AC
2360* gdba.el deleted
2361
2362GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 2363
9debab2f 2364*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 2365
c63ce875
EZ
2366* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2367
2368Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2369programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2370displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2371greater level of detail.
2372
2373* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2374
2375It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2376bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2377on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2378written.
2379
2380* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2381
2382The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2383necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2384machines ``out of the box''.
2385
2386The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2387possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2388signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2389would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2390interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2391
2392It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2393standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2394even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2395and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2396terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2397
2398The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2399enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2400also works.
2401
2402DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2403GDB.
2404
2405It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2406directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2407times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2408breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2409
ed9a39eb
JM
2410* New native configurations
2411
2412ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 2413PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 2414
7a292a7a
SS
2415* New targets
2416
96baa820 2417Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
2418x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2419PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
2420TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2421
085dd6e6
JM
2422* OBSOLETE configurations
2423
2424Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2425Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 2426Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 2427ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 2428Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 2429
9debab2f
AC
2430Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2431but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2432these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2433be permanently REMOVED.
2434
5330533d
SS
2435* Gould support removed
2436
2437Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2438
bc9e5bbf
AC
2439* New features for SVR4
2440
2441On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2442without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2443load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2444
2445* Many C++ enhancements
2446
2447C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2448in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2449
adf40b2e
JM
2450* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2451
2452A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2453sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2454with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2455``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2456
2457 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2458 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2459
43e526b9
JM
2460* MIPS 64 remote protocol
2461
2462A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2463expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2464instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2465
2466The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2467added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2468
96baa820
JM
2469* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2470
2471The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2472``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2473include ``set remote P-packet''.
2474
11cf8741
JM
2475* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2476
2477The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2478accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2479``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2480
7876dd43
DB
2481* ``apropos'' command added.
2482
2483The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2484documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2485try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2486
bc9e5bbf
AC
2487* New MI interface
2488
2489A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2490interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
2491process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2492"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2493enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
2494
2495 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2496
c906108c
SS
2497*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2498
2499* New native configurations
2500
2501HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2502HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 2503M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
2504
2505* New targets
2506
2507Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2508Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2509Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2510
2511* OBSOLETE configurations
2512
2513Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2514
2515Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2516but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2517these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2518be permanently REMOVED.
2519
2520* ANSI/ISO C
2521
2522As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2523buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2524containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2525use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2526available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2527configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2528information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2529already.
2530
2531* Readline 2.2
2532
2533GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2534
2535* set extension-language
2536
2537You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2538languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2539you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2540 set extension-language .c c++
2541The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2542and their associated languages.
2543
2544* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2545
2546When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2547you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2548PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2549
2550 set processor NAME
2551
2552sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2553following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2554
2555 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2556 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2557 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2558 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2559 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2560 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2561 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2562 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2563 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2564 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2565 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2566
2567At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2568special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2569registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2570only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2571
2572* HP-UX support
2573
2574Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2575more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2576library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2577support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2578for xdb and dbx commands.
2579
2580* Catchpoints
2581
2582HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2583generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2584to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2585
2586This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2587argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2588output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2589
2590* Debugging across forks
2591
2592On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2593in the inferior.
2594
2595* TUI
2596
2597HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2598it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2599configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2600
2601* GDB remote protocol additions
2602
2603A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2604Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2605fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2606allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2607
2608For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2609full 64-bit address. The command
2610
2611 set remoteaddresssize 32
2612
2613can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2614the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2615will be discarded.
2616
2617In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2618command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2619
2620 maint packet heythere
2621
2622sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2623disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2624time.
2625
2626The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2627target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2628downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2629
2630* Tracing can collect general expressions
2631
2632You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2633further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2634doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2635
2636* mask-address variable for Mips
2637
2638For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2639a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2640of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2641
2642* Higher serial baud rates
2643
2644GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2645230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2646to achieve all of these rates.)
2647
2648* i960 simulator
2649
2650The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2651builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2652
2653
2654*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2655
2656* New native configurations
2657
2658Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2659Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2660Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2661PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2662PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2663Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2664Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2665
2666* New targets
2667
2668Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2669Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2670Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2671Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2672MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2673MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2674MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2675Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2676Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2677Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2678NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2679
2680* New debugging protocols
2681
2682ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2683M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2684DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2685PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2686PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2687Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2688
2689* DWARF 2
2690
2691All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2692format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2693information.
2694
2695* Java frontend
2696
2697GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2698only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2699
2700* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2701
2702For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2703loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2704locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2705
2706* Live range splitting
2707
2708GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2709range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2710more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2711
2712* Hurd support
2713
2714GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2715updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2716
2717* ARM Thumb support
2718
2719GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2720instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2721instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2722accordingly.
2723
2724* MIPS16 support
2725
2726GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2727instruction set.
2728
2729* Overlay support
2730
2731GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2732linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2733will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2734control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2735additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2736in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2737
2738* info symbol
2739
2740The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2741the symbol at the specified address.
2742
2743* Trace support
2744
2745The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2746asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2747extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2748includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2749file tracepoint.c for more details.
2750
2751* MIPS simulator
2752
2753Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2754by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2755of most MIPS variants.
2756
2757* Sparc simulator
2758
2759Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2760by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2761Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2762
2763* set architecture
2764
2765For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2766basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2767architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2768the possible architectures.
2769
2770*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2771
2772* New native configurations
2773
2774Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2775M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2776PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2777PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2778PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2779RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2780
2781* New targets
2782
2783ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2784I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2785MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2786MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2787PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2788Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
2789Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2790
2791* PowerPC simulator
2792
2793The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2794contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2795PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2796basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2797performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2798
2799* Solaris 2.5
2800
2801GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2802
2803* Windows 95/NT native
2804
2805GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2806To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2807which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2808Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2809ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2810
2811* dont-repeat command
2812
2813If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2814command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2815useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2816extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2817
2818* Send break instead of ^C
2819
2820The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2821rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2822GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2823
2824* Remote protocol timeout
2825
2826The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2827that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2828to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2829
2830* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2831
2832By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2833loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2834stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2835when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2836in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2837
2838Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2839/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2840automatically on hpux10.
2841
2842* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2843
2844Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2845
2846* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2847
2848When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2849may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2850the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2851every character. The default value is 1050.
2852
2853* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2854
2855If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2856a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2857replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2858details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2859remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2860to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2861
2862* Speedups for remote debugging
2863
2864GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2865the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2866and more efficient S-record downloading.
2867
2868* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2869
2870GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2871Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2872
2873*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2874
2875* Psymtabs for XCOFF
2876
2877The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2878can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2879
2880* Remote targets use caching
2881
2882Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2883remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2884it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2885debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2886off' turns the the data cache off.
2887
2888* Remote targets may have threads
2889
2890The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2891in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2892gdb/remote.c for details.
2893
2894* NetROM support
2895
2896If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2897support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2898acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2899write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2900support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2901another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2902sequence is something like
2903
2904 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2905 load <prog>
2906 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2907
2908* Macintosh host
2909
2910GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2911may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2912it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2913available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2914device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2915directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2916scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2917mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2918
2919* Autoconf
2920
2921GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2922but does simplify configuration and building.
2923
2924* hpux10
2925
2926GDB now supports hpux10.
2927
2928*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2929
2930* New native configurations
2931
2932x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2933x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2934NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2935Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2936
2937* New targets
2938
2939A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2940HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2941CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2942PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2943WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2944
2945* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2946
2947GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2948possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2949filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2950the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2951if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2952
2953* Arguments to user-defined commands
2954
2955User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2956Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2957trivial example:
2958define adder
2959 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2960
2961To execute the command use:
2962adder 1 2 3
2963
2964Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2965Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2966use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2967
2968* New `if' and `while' commands
2969
2970This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2971commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2972expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2973execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2974terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2975`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2976if the expression is zero.
2977
2978* Fortran source language mode
2979
2980GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2981Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2982variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2983with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2984Fortran compilers.
2985
2986* Better HPUX support
2987
2988Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2989running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2990processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2991for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2992that behavior do the following before running the program:
2993
2994 adb -w a.out
2995 __dld_flags?W 0x5
2996 control-d
2997
2998This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2999To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3000
3001 adb -w a.out
3002 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3003 control-d
3004
3005You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3006the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3007external linkage.
3008
3009GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3010HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3011
3012* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3013
3014You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3015commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3016current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3017"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3018associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3019configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3020
3021* New DOS host serial code
3022
3023This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3024no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3025a PC's serial port.
3026
3027*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3028
3029* New "complete" command
3030
3031This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3032were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3033
3034* Trailing space optional in prompt
3035
3036"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3037allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3038
3039* Breakpoint hit counts
3040
3041"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3042has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3043can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3044to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3045less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3046that breakpoint.
3047
3048* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3049
3050"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3051an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3052arrays actually contain only short strings.
3053
3054* Shared library breakpoints
3055
3056In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3057breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3058
3059* Hardware watchpoints
3060
3061There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3062targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3063
55241689 3064Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3065
3066* Annotations
3067
3068Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3069and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3070
3071* Improved Irix 5 support
3072
3073GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3074
3075* Improved HPPA support
3076
3077GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3078
3079* New native configurations
3080
3081Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3082HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3083Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3084RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3085
3086* New targets
3087
3088OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3089MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3090Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3091
3092* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3093
3094There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3095This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3096
3097* Fixes
3098
3099As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3100and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3101
3102*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3103
3104* Irix 5 is now supported
3105
3106* HPPA support
3107
3108GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3109to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3110GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3111of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3112can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3113
3114
3115*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3116
3117* User visible changes:
3118
3119* Remote Debugging
3120
3121The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3122target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3123debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3124integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3125debugging info for the mips target).
3126
3127* DEC Alpha native support
3128
3129GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3130debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3131work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3132Alpha-specific notes.
3133
3134* Preliminary thread implementation
3135
3136GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3137
3138* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3139
3140This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3141to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3142for details).
3143
3144* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3145
3146This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3147mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3148call methods, ...etc.
3149
3150*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3151
3152 * User visible changes:
3153
3154Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3155supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3156other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3157somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3158
3159Filename completion now works.
3160
3161When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3162arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3163addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3164
3165All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3166vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3167should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3168your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3169to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3170
3171 * DEC alpha support
3172
3173This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3174cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3175
3176
3177*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3178
3179 * Testsuite
3180
3181This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3182The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3183via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3184
3185 * C++ demangling
3186
3187'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3188emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3189Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3190disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3191use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3192
3193 * Simulators
3194
3195GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3196So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3197Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3198
3199 * New targets supported
3200
3201H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3202H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3203SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3204Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3205IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3206
3207Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3208version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3209GO32 memory extender.
3210
3211 * New remote protocols
3212
3213MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3214
3215 * New source languages supported
3216
3217This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3218used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3219into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3220
3221
3222*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3223
3224 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3225
3226GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3227version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3228University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3229compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3230format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3231(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3232
3233Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3234
3235 * Faster and better demangling
3236
3237We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3238demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3239character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3240only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3241This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3242increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3243symbol lookups.
3244
3245`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3246from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3247compiler does not actually implement.
3248
3249 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3250
3251In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3252inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3253recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3254very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3255The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3256circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3257fix.
3258
3259The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3260release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3261
3262 * Improved configure script
3263
3264The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3265you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3266host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3267done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3268
3269We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3270version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3271`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3272The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3273only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3274We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3275
3276 * Documentation improvements
3277
3278There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3279produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3280before submitting changes.
3281
3282The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3283M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3284`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3285you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3286a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3287
3288*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3289We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3290been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3291or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3292`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3293around this problem.
3294
3295 * New features
3296
3297GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3298the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3299`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3300the target program.
3301
3302The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3303how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3304
3305 * New native hosts supported
3306
3307HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3308386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3309
3310 * New targets supported
3311
3312AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3313
3314 * New file formats supported
3315
3316BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3317HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3318
3319 * Major bug fixes
3320
3321Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3322
3323We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3324printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3325
3326We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3327for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3328release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3329
3330You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3331will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3332
3333We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3334for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3335especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3336libraries.
3337
3338The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3339information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3340command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3341any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3342when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3343
3344 * Internal improvements
3345
3346GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3347debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3348
3349GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3350Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3351symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3352contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3353shared code that handles any of them.
3354
3355 * New command line options
3356
3357We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3358
3359 * Mmalloc licensing
3360
3361The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3362General Public License.
3363
3364*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3365
3366 * Host/native/target split
3367
3368GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3369hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3370target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3371local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3372ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3373
3374The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3375GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3376is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3377code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3378any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3379built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3380handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3381
3382GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3383It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3384plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3385
3386 * New hosts supported
3387
3388HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3389386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3390386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3391
3392 * New targets supported
3393
3394Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
339568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3396
3397 * New native hosts supported
3398
3399386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3400 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3401386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3402
3403 * New file formats supported
3404
3405BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3406supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3407format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3408
3409 * New commands
3410
3411`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3412`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3413These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3414
3415`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3416
3417You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3418scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3419prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3420executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3421
3422 * C++ improvements
3423
3424We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3425info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3426symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3427
3428Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3429
3430 * Major bug fixes
3431
3432The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3433fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3434by the compiler.
3435
3436We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3437support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3438
3439John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3440slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3441that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3442purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3443the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3444mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3445
3446Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3447about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3448completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3449we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3450
3451 * AMD 29k support
3452
3453A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3454specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3455calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3456usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3457in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3458
3459We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3460Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3461of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3462resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3463
3464 * Remote interfaces
3465
3466We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3467with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3468message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3469This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3470needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3471breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3472each instruction being stepped through.
3473
3474The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3475registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3476
3477There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3478find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3479Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3480processor with a serial port.
3481
3482 * Configuration
3483
3484Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3485`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3486supported, and what files each one uses.
3487
3488 * Library changes
3489
3490There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3491disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3492Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3493disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3494
3495The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3496Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3497can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3498grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3499
3500 * Documentation
3501
3502The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3503reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3504as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3505encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3506system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3507bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3508
3509And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3510
3511
3512*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3513
3514 * Better support for C++ function names
3515
3516GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3517names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3518(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3519single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3520Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3521
3522GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3523the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3524You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3525lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3526for the list of formats.
3527
3528 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3529
3530Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3531C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3532directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3533can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3534usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3535about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3536this problem.)
3537
3538 * New 'maintenance' command
3539
3540All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3541the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3542can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3543
3544 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3545 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3546 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3547 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3548 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3549 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3550
3551The following commands are new:
3552
3553 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3554 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3555 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3556
3557 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3558
3559We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3560(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3561be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3562read after argv processing.
3563
3564 * New hosts supported
3565
3566Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3567
55241689 3568GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
3569
3570We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3571is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3572for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3573masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3574fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3575It costs extra.
3576
3577 * New targets supported
3578
3579Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3580
3581 * More smarts about finding #include files
3582
3583GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3584all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3585greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3586especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3587the one that contains your sources.
3588
3589We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3590breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3591try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3592
3593 * Interesting infernals change
3594
3595GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3596section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3597target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3598stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3599
3600 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3601
3602There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3603 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3604 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3605
3606See the ChangeLog for details.
3607
3608*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3609
3610 * New machines supported (host and target)
3611
3612IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3613
3614SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3615
3616 * New malloc package
3617
3618GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3619Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3620capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3621This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3622pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3623more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3624
3625 * info proc
3626
3627The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3628'help info proc' for details.
3629
3630 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3631
3632The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3633Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3634possible.
3635
3636 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3637
3638Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3639support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3640conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3641environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3642that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3643in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3644
3645 * Cross byte order fixes
3646
3647Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3648targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3649
3650 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3651
3652If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3653system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3654`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3655program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3656called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3657Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3658and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3659the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3660option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3661starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3662
3663You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3664the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3665information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3666slower, but makes future operations faster.
3667
3668The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3669build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3670A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3671use is:
3672
3673 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3674
3675The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3676It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3677shared across multiple host platforms.
3678
3679 * longjmp() handling
3680
3681GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3682siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3683all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3684platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3685
3686 * Solaris 2.0
3687
3688Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3689this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3690reading symbols.
3691
3692 * Bug fixes
3693
3694As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3695People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3696crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3697
3698*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3699
3700 * New machines supported (host and target)
3701
3702SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3703 (except core files)
3704BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3705Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3706
3707 * New machines supported (target)
3708
3709AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3710
3711 * C++ support
3712
3713GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3714The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3715per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3716
3717GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3718`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3719extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3720good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3721will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3722released.
3723
3724 * New features for SVR4
3725
3726GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3727shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3728only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3729
3730The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3731on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3732it prints the address mappings of the process.
3733
3734If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3735bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3736
3737 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3738
3739Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3740now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3741skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3742make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3743same code linked statically.
3744
3745 * New Getopt
3746
3747GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3748version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3749continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3750Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3751added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3752future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3753
3754 * Bugs fixed
3755
3756The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3757Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3758See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3759
3760
3761*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3762
3763 * New machines supported (host and target)
3764
3765Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3766NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3767Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3768
3769 * Almost SCO Unix support
3770
3771We had hoped to support:
3772SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3773(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3774that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3775about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3776
3777 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3778
3779GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3780debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3781is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3782send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3783reqired (if any).
3784
3785 * New Readline
3786
3787GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3788is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3789required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3790
3791 * Bugs fixed
3792
3793The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3794Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3795See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3796
3797 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3798
3799GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3800supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3801symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3802
3803Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3804mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3805debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3806mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3807version 2.
3808
3809Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3810really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3811line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3812variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3813situation somewhat.
3814
3815When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3816However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3817methods.
3818
3819We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3820DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3821encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3822
3823
3824*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3825
3826 * Improved configuration
3827
3828Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3829Porting BFD is simpler.
3830
3831 * Stepping improved
3832
3833The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3834of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3835in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3836function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3837
3838 * Bug fixing
3839
3840Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3841
3842 * New host supported (not target)
3843
3844Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3845
3846
3847*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3848
3849 * Multiple source language support
3850
3851GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3852It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3853and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3854language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3855You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3856`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3857
3858 * GDB and Modula-2
3859
3860GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3861currently under development at the State University of New York at
3862Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3863continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3864
3865Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3866debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3867symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3868
3869There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3870in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3871
3872 * set write on/off
3873
3874GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3875a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3876the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3877by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3878effect immediately.
3879
3880 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3881
3882When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3883shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3884The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3885examining core files.
3886
3887 * set listsize
3888
3889You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3890The default is 10.
3891
3892 * New machines supported (host and target)
3893
3894SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3895Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3896Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3897
3898 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3899
3900IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3901
3902 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3903
3904AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3905AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3906Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3907
3908 * New remote interfaces
3909
3910AMD 29000 Adapt
3911AMD 29000 Minimon
3912
3913
3914*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3915
3916 * New Facilities
3917
3918Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3919
3920Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3921target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3922is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3923remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3924remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3925also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3926using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3927stub on the target system.
3928
3929New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3930
3931GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3932library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3933object file types such as a.out and coff.
3934
3935There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3936refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3937
3938
3939 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3940
3941All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3942by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3943
3944For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3945``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3946Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3947
3948What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3949print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3950will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3951all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3952
3953confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3954 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3955 it is already running. Default is ON.
3956
3957editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3958 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3959 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3960 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3961 Default is ON.
3962
3963history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3964 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3965 or the value of the environment variable
3966 GDBHISTFILE.
3967
3968history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3969 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3970 HISTSIZE.
3971
3972history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3973 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3974 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3975
3976history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3977 history expansion will be performed on
3978 command line input. The default is OFF.
3979
3980radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3981 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3982 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3983
3984height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3985 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3986 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3987 variable TERM.
3988
3989width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3990 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3991 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3992 variable TERM.
3993
3994Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3995``set width'' instead.
3996
3997print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3998 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3999 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4000 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4001
4002print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4003 is OFF.
4004
4005print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4006 "raw" form if off.
4007
4008print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4009 like instructions.
4010
4011print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4012
4013
4014 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4015
4016The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4017new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4018are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4019window.
4020
4021
4022 * Support for Shared Libraries
4023
4024GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4025Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4026before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4027happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4028At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4029from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4030shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4031It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4032
4033sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4034 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4035 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4036
4037info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4038
4039
4040 * Watchpoints
4041
4042A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4043expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4044tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4045quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4046problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4047more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4048
4049watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4050
4051info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4052
4053delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4054disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4055enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4056
4057
4058 * C++ multiple inheritance
4059
4060When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4061for C++ programs.
4062
4063 * C++ exception handling
4064
4065Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4066ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4067the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4068handler's context).
4069
4070catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4071 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4072 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4073
4074info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4075 current stack frame.
4076
4077
4078 * Minor command changes
4079
4080The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4081command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4082is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4083
4084The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4085at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4086frames without printing.
4087
4088 * New directory command
4089
4090'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4091The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4092about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4093with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4094find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4095
4096 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4097
4098For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4099for more details.
4100
4101GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4102two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4103Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4104where the program that you are debugging will run.
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