2012-09-19 Chris Schlumberger-Socha <chris.schlumberger-socha@arm.com>
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
... / ...
CommitLineData
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4*** Changes since GDB 7.5
5
6* Python scripting
7
8 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
9
10* New Python-based convenience functions:
11
12 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
13 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
14 ** $_strlen(str)
15 ** $_regex(str, regex)
16
17* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
18 given an argument.
19
20* New configure options
21
22--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
23 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
24 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
25 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
26 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
27 options allow the user to override that default.
28
29* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
30
31maint info bfds
32 List the BFDs known to GDB.
33
34python-interactive [command]
35pi [command]
36 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
37 and print the result of expressions.
38
39py [command]
40 "py" is a new alias for "python".
41
42* MI changes
43
44 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
45 "=cmd-param-changed".
46 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
47 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
48 ** The creation and deletion of trace state variables are now notified
49 using new async records "=tsv-created" and "=tsv-deleted".
50
51*** Changes in GDB 7.5
52
53* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
54 for more x32 ABI info.
55
56* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
57
58* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
59
60* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
61 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
62 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
63 "info os files" lists file descriptors
64 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
65 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
66 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
67 "info os msg" lists message queues
68 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
69
70* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
71 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
72 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
73 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
74 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
75 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
76
77* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
78 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
79 record/replay support.
80
81* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
82
83* Python scripting
84
85 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
86 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
87
88 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
89
90 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
91 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
92
93 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
94
95 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
96 the source at which the symbol was defined.
97
98 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
99 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
100 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
101 symbol's value.
102
103 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
104 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
105
106 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
107 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
108 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
109
110 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
111 object associated with a PC value.
112
113 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
114 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
115
116* Go language support.
117 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
118 language.
119
120* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
121 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
122
123* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
124 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
125
126* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
127 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
128 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
129 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
130 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
131 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
132
133* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
134 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
135 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
136 build/libcpp/expr.c.
137
138* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
139 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
140
141* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
142 since December 2007.
143
144* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
145 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
146 command does. For instance:
147
148 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
149
150 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
151 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
152 created, using the "condition" command.
153
154* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
155 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
156
157* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
158
159* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
160 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
161 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
162 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
163 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
164 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
165 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
166 files with older .gdb_index sections.
167
168 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
169 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
170 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
171 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
172 the .gdb_index section.
173
174* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
175
176* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
177 target.
178
179* MI changes
180
181 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
182
183 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
184
185* New commands
186
187 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
188 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
189 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
190
191 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
192 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
193
194 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
195 several hits.
196
197 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
198 C++ and Java objects.
199
200 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
201 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
202 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
203 configured with '--with-python'.
204
205 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
206 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
207 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
208 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
209 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
210 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
211 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
212
213 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
214 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
215 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
216 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
217
218 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
219 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
220 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
221 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
222
223 ** "set print symbol"
224 "show print symbol"
225 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
226 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
227 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
228
229* Deprecated commands
230
231 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
232 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
233
234* New targets
235
236Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
237HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
238
239* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
240 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
241 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
242 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
243 evaluates to true.
244
245* New options
246
247set mips compression
248show mips compression
249 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
250 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
251 mips16
252 micromips
253 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
254
255set breakpoint condition-evaluation
256show breakpoint condition-evaluation
257 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
258 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
259 available mode.
260 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
261 target.
262
263set auto-load off
264 Disable auto-loading globally.
265
266show auto-load
267 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
268
269set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
270show auto-load gdb-scripts
271 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
272
273set auto-load python-scripts on|off
274show auto-load python-scripts
275 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
276
277set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
278show auto-load local-gdbinit
279 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
280
281set auto-load libthread-db on|off
282show auto-load libthread-db
283 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
284
285set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
286show auto-load scripts-directory
287 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
288 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
289 of the directories listed by this option.
290 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
291
292set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
293show auto-load safe-path
294 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
295 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
296
297set debug auto-load on|off
298show debug auto-load
299 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
300
301set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
302show dprintf-style
303 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
304 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
305 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
306 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
307
308set dprintf-function <expr>
309show dprintf-function
310set dprintf-channel <expr>
311show dprintf-channel
312 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
313 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
314
315set disconnected-dprintf on|off
316show disconnected-dprintf
317 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
318 after GDB disconnects.
319
320* New configure options
321
322--with-auto-load-dir
323 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
324 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
325 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
326 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
327 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
328
329--with-auto-load-safe-path
330 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
331 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
332
333--without-auto-load-safe-path
334 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
335 security feature.
336
337* New remote packets
338
339z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
340
341 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
342 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
343 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
344 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
345
346QProgramSignals:
347
348 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
349 program without GDB involvement.
350
351* New command line options
352
353--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
354 before loading inferior.
355--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
356 execute it before loading inferior.
357
358*** Changes in GDB 7.4
359
360* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
361 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
362 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
363 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
364 inferior changes.
365
366* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
367 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
368
369* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
370 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
371 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
372 target hardware watchpoint.
373
374 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
375 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
376 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
377 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
378
379* Python scripting
380
381 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
382 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
383 existing one.
384
385 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
386 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
387 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
388 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
389 now "message", which just prints the error message without
390 the stack trace.
391
392 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
393 Python API.
394
395 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
396 modules library. This module provides functionality for
397 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
398 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
399 corresponding value.
400
401 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
402 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
403 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
404 on GDB start-up.
405
406 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
407 static_block will return the global and static blocks
408 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
409 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
410
411 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
412
413 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
414 "gdb.breakpoints".
415
416 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
417 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
418 available in the CLI.
419
420 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
421 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
422 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
423 "some_type.items()".
424
425 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
426 new object file.
427
428 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
429 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
430 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
431 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
432 any anonymous fields.
433
434* MI changes
435
436 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
437 "solib-event".
438
439 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
440 "=breakpoint-modified".
441
442 ** New command -ada-task-info.
443
444* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
445 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
446 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
447 lives.
448
449 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
450 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
451 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
452 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
453 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
454
455 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
456 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
457
458* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
459 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
460 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
461 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
462 use this option to specify where to find it.
463
464* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
465 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
466 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
467 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
468 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
469 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
470 section in the user manual for more details.
471
472* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
473 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
474 become available after that.
475
476* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
477
478* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
479 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
480 gcc version 4.7.
481
482* New commands
483
484!SHELL COMMAND
485 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
486 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
487
488* Changed commands
489
490watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
491 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
492 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
493
494info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
495 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
496 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
497
498info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
499 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
500 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
501 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
502 name starts with a hyphen.
503
504collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
505 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
506 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
507 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
508 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
509 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
510 number of bytes that will be collected.
511
512tstart [NOTES]
513 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
514 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
515 setting the variable trace-notes.
516
517tstop [NOTES]
518 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
519 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
520 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
521 trace-stop-notes.
522
523* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
524 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
525 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
526 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
527 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
528 is running.
529
530* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
531 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
532 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
533
534* New options
535
536set debug dwarf2-read
537show debug dwarf2-read
538 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
539 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
540
541set debug symtab-create
542show debug symtab-create
543 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
544 creation. The default is off.
545
546set extended-prompt
547show extended-prompt
548 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
549 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
550 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
551 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
552 prompt is displayed.
553
554set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
555show print entry-values
556 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
557 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
558 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
559
560set debug entry-values
561show debug entry-values
562 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
563 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
564
565set basenames-may-differ
566show basenames-may-differ
567 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
568 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
569 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
570 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
571 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
572 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
573 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
574 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
575
576set trace-user
577show trace-user
578set trace-notes
579show trace-notes
580 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
581 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
582 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
583 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
584
585set trace-stop-notes
586show trace-stop-notes
587 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
588 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
589 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
590 started by someone else.
591
592* New remote packets
593
594QTEnable
595
596 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
597
598QTDisable
599
600 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
601
602QTNotes
603
604 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
605
606qTP
607
608 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
609
610qTMinFTPILen
611
612 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
613 be placed.
614
615* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
616 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
617
618* New targets
619
620Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
621
622* New Simulators
623
624Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
625
626*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
627
628* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
629
630*** Changes in GDB 7.3
631
632* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
633 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
634 matches the given regular expression.
635
636* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
637
638* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
639 dumping the instruction opcodes.
640
641* New command line options
642
643-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
644 This is mostly for testing purposes.
645
646* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
647 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
648
649* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
650 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
651 source path list instead of augmenting it.
652
653* GDB now understands thread names.
654
655 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
656 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
657
658 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
659 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
660
661* OpenCL C
662 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
663 has been integrated into GDB.
664
665* Python scripting
666
667 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
668 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
669 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
670
671 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
672 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
673 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
674 and allows for more dynamic content.
675
676 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
677 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
678 have an is_valid method.
679
680 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
681 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
682 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
683
684 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
685
686 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
687 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
688 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
689 that function like so:
690
691 result = some_value (10,20)
692
693 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
694 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
695 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
696
697 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
698 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
699 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
700 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
701 New function: register_pretty_printer.
702
703 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
704 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
705
706 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
707
708 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
709 selected thread.
710
711 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
712 holds the thread's name.
713
714 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
715 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
716 occurring in the process being debugged.
717 The following events are currently supported:
718 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
719 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
720 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
721
722* C++ Improvements:
723
724 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
725 instantiation. For example, if you have:
726
727 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
728
729 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
730 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
731 was added to GCC 4.5.
732
733 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
734 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
735 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
736 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
737 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
738 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
739
740* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
741 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
742 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
743 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
744 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
745
746* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
747 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
748 execution to a label.
749
750* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
751 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
752 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
753 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
754
755* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
756 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
757 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
758 of scope.
759
760* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
761
762 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
763 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
764 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
765 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
766 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
767 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
768
769 (gdb) info threads
770 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
771
772 While now you see this:
773
774 (gdb) info threads
775 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
776
777 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
778 dumps.
779
780 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
781 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
782 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
783 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
784
785* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
786 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
787 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
788 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
789 section in the user manual for more details.
790
791* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
792
793 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
794 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
795
796 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
797
798* New native configurations
799
800ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
801
802* New targets:
803
804Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
805
806* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
807 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
808 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
809 in the GDB user manual.
810
811* Guile support was removed.
812
813* New features in the GNU simulator
814
815 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
816
817 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
818
819*** Changes in GDB 7.2
820
821* Shared library support for remote targets by default
822
823 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
824 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
825 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
826 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
827 was always disabled for such configurations.
828
829* C++ Improvements:
830
831 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
832
833 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
834 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
835 For example:
836 namespace A
837 {
838 class B { };
839 void foo (B) { }
840 }
841 ...
842 A::B b
843 foo(b)
844 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
845 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
846 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
847
848 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
849
850 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
851 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
852 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
853 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
854 entry.
855 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
856 mentioned flavors of operators.
857
858 ** static const class members
859
860 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
861 class definition has been fixed.
862
863* Windows Thread Information Block access.
864
865 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
866 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
867 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
868 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
869 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
870 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
871
872* Static tracepoints
873
874 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
875 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
876 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
877 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
878 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
879 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
880 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
881 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
882 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
883 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
884 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
885 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
886 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
887 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
888 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
889 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
890 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
891 the "New remote packets" section below.
892
893* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
894
895 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
896 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
897 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
898 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
899
900* Observer mode
901
902 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
903 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
904 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
905 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
906 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
907 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
908 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
909
910* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
911 current thread.
912
913* New remote packets
914
915qGetTIBAddr
916
917 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
918
919qRelocInsn
920
921 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
922 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
923 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
924 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
925 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
926 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
927
928qTfSTM, qTsSTM
929
930 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
931
932qTSTMat
933
934 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
935 program.
936
937qXfer:statictrace:read
938
939 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
940 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
941 to gdb's qSupported query.
942
943QAllow
944
945 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
946
947QTDPsrc
948
949 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
950 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
951
952* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
953 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
954 a directory.
955
956* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
957
958 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
959 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
960 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
961 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
962
963 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
964 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
965 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
966 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
967 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
968 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
969 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
970
971 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
972 for static tracepoints support.
973
974 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
975
976* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
977 it understands register description.
978
979* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
980
981* X86 general purpose registers
982
983 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
984 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
985 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
986 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
987 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
988
989* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
990 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
991 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
992 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
993 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
994 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
995
996* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
997 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
998 in the specified file.
999
1000* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1001 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1002 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1003 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1004 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1005 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1006 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1007 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1008 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1009 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1010
1011* New commands
1012
1013eval template, expressions...
1014 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1015 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1016
1017set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1018show target-file-system-kind
1019 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1020 names.
1021
1022save breakpoints <filename>
1023 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1024 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1025 definitions, use the `source' command.
1026
1027`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1028is now deprecated.
1029
1030info static-tracepoint-markers
1031 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1032
1033strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1034 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1035 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1036
1037set observer on|off
1038show observer
1039 Enable and disable observer mode.
1040
1041set may-write-registers on|off
1042set may-write-memory on|off
1043set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1044set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1045set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1046set may-interrupt on|off
1047 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1048 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1049 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1050 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1051 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1052 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1053 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1054
1055set record memory-query on|off
1056show record memory-query
1057 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1058 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1059
1060* Changed commands
1061
1062disassemble
1063 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1064
1065* Python scripting
1066
1067** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1068 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1069 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1070 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1071 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1072
1073** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
1074 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1075 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1076 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
1077
1078** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
1079 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1080
1081** New exception gdb.GdbError.
1082
1083** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
1084
1085** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1086
1087** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1088 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1089 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1090
1091* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1092there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1093tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1094regular breakpoints.
1095
1096* New targets
1097
1098ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1099
1100* D language support.
1101 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1102 language.
1103
1104* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1105 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1106 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1107 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1108 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1109
1110* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1111 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1112 conditions of the form:
1113
1114 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1115
1116 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1117 interface mentioned above.
1118
1119*** Changes in GDB 7.1
1120
1121* C++ Improvements
1122
1123 ** Namespace Support
1124
1125 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1126 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1127 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1128 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1129 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1130
1131 ** Bug Fixes
1132
1133 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1134 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1135 qualified name.
1136
1137 ** Cast Operators
1138
1139 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1140 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1141
1142* New targets
1143
1144Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
1145Renesas RX rx-*-elf
1146
1147* New Simulators
1148
1149Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
1150Renesas RX rx
1151
1152* Multi-program debugging.
1153
1154 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1155 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1156 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1157 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1158 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1159 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1160 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1161 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1162
1163* New tracing features
1164
1165 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1166
1167 ** Trace state variables
1168
1169 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1170 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1171 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1172 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1173 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1174 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1175 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1176 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1177 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1178 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
1179
1180 ** Fast tracepoints
1181
1182 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1183 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1184 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1185 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1186 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1187 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1188 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1189 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1190 the regular trace command.
1191
1192 ** Disconnected tracing
1193
1194 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1195 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1196 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1197 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1198 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1199
1200 ** Trace files
1201
1202 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1203 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1204 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1205 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1206 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1207 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1208 <name>".
1209
1210 ** Circular trace buffer
1211
1212 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1213 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1214 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1215 not be available for all target agents.
1216
1217* Changed commands
1218
1219disassemble
1220 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1221 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1222
1223info variables
1224 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1225 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1226
1227source
1228 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1229 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1230 support.
1231
1232 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1233 "set script-extension" (see below).
1234
1235* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1236
1237record save [<FILENAME>]
1238 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1239 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1240
1241record restore <FILENAME>
1242 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1243 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1244
1245add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1246 Add a new inferior.
1247
1248clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1249 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1250 inferior has loaded.
1251
1252remove-inferior ID
1253 Remove an inferior.
1254
1255maint info program-spaces
1256 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1257
1258set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1259show remote interrupt-sequence
1260 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1261 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1262 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1263 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1264 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1265
1266set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1267show remote interrupt-on-connect
1268 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1269 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1270 Linux kernel.
1271
1272set remotebreak [on | off]
1273show remotebreak
1274Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1275
1276tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1277 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1278
1279info tvariables
1280 List trace state variables and their values.
1281
1282delete tvariable $NAME ...
1283 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1284
1285teval EXPR, ...
1286 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1287 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1288
1289ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1290 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1291
1292* New expression syntax
1293
1294 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1295 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1296
1297* New options
1298
1299set follow-exec-mode new|same
1300show follow-exec-mode
1301 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1302 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1303 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1304
1305set default-collect EXPR, ...
1306show default-collect
1307 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1308 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1309 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1310
1311set disconnected-tracing
1312show disconnected-tracing
1313 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1314 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1315 upon disconnection.
1316
1317set circular-trace-buffer
1318show circular-trace-buffer
1319 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1320 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1321 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1322 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1323
1324set script-extension off|soft|strict
1325show script-extension
1326 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1327 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1328 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1329 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1330 evaluation failed.
1331 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1332
1333set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1334show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1335 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1336 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1337 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1338 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1339 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1340 is on.
1341
1342* Python API Improvements
1343
1344 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1345 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1346 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1347
1348 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1349 `is_base_class' attribute.
1350
1351 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1352
1353 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1354 evaluate an expression.
1355
1356* New remote packets
1357
1358QTDV
1359 Define a trace state variable.
1360
1361qTV
1362 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1363
1364QTDisconnected
1365 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1366
1367QTBuffer:circular
1368 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1369
1370qTfP, qTsP
1371 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1372
1373* Bug fixes
1374
1375Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1376
1377Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1378much more reliable. In particular:
1379 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1380 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1381 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1382 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1383 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1384 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1385 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1386 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1387 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1388 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1389 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1390 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1391 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1392 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1393 non-threaded programs.
1394
1395PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1396This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1397libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1398executable program.
1399
1400*** Changes in GDB 7.0
1401
1402* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1403dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1404them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1405for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1406"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1407
1408* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1409breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1410or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1411the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1412for tracepoint actions.
1413
1414* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1415raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1416modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
1417
1418* Process record and replay
1419
1420 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1421 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1422 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1423 execute commands.
1424
1425* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1426step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1427set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1428reverse execution.
1429
1430* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1431feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
14322.6.28 or later.
1433
1434* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1435target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1436char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1437literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1438U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1439`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1440system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1441the installation instructions for more information.
1442
1443* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1444remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1445with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1446the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1447
1448* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1449and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1450
1451* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1452now complete on file names.
1453
1454* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1455completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1456For instance, consider:
1457
1458 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1459 # struct example variable;
1460 (gdb) p variable.
1461
1462If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1463completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1464
1465* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1466the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1467
1468* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1469operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1470macros.
1471
1472* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
1473the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1474implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1475
1476* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1477registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1478can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1479and simulator targets may also provide them.
1480
1481* New remote packets
1482
1483qSearch:memory:
1484 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1485
1486QStartNoAckMode
1487 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1488 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1489 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1490
1491vKill
1492 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1493 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1494
1495qXfer:osdata:read
1496 Obtains additional operating system information
1497
1498qXfer:siginfo:read
1499qXfer:siginfo:write
1500 Read or write additional signal information.
1501
1502* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1503
1504 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1505 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1506 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1507
1508* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
1509DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
1510
1511* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
1512and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1513`set/show sh calling-convention'.
1514
1515* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1516with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1517
1518* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1519
1520* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1521
1522* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1523which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1524
1525* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
1526list of section offsets.
1527
1528* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1529conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1530have also been fixed.
1531
1532* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
1533From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1534are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
1535
1536* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1537example, given:
1538
1539 template<typename T> class C { };
1540 C<char const *> c;
1541
1542GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1543
1544 ptype C<char const *>
1545 ptype C<char const*>
1546 ptype C<const char *>
1547 ptype C<const char*>
1548
1549* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1550
1551 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1552 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1553
1554 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1555 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1556 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1557
1558 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1559 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1560
1561 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1562 gdbserver.
1563
1564 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1565 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1566
1567 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1568 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1569 as appropriate.
1570
1571* Python scripting
1572
1573 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1574 available is determined at configure time.
1575
1576 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1577
1578* Ada tasking support
1579
1580 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1581 been introduced:
1582
1583 info tasks
1584 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1585 info task N
1586 Print detailed information about task number N.
1587 task
1588 Print the task number of the current task.
1589 task N
1590 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1591
1592* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1593add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1594
1595* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1596
1597 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1598 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1599 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1600 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1601 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1602 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1603 below.
1604
1605* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1606"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1607information.
1608
1609* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1610to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1611architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1612See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1613more information.
1614
1615* Multi-architecture debugging.
1616
1617 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1618 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1619 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1620 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1621 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1622
1623* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1624use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1625Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1626powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1627--enable-targets configure option.
1628
1629* Non-stop mode debugging.
1630
1631 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1632 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1633 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1634 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1635 section in the user manual for more information.
1636
1637 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1638 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1639 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1640 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1641 extensions on linux targets.
1642
1643* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1644
1645catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1646 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1647 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1648 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1649 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1650 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1651 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1652 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1653 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1654
1655find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1656 val1 [, val2, ...]
1657 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1658
1659maint set python print-stack
1660maint show python print-stack
1661 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1662
1663python [CODE]
1664 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1665
1666macro define
1667macro list
1668macro undef
1669 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1670 interactively.
1671
1672info os processes
1673 Show operating system information about processes.
1674
1675info inferiors
1676 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1677
1678inferior NUM
1679 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1680
1681detach inferior NUM
1682 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1683
1684kill inferior NUM
1685 Kill inferior number NUM.
1686
1687* New options
1688
1689set spu stop-on-load
1690show spu stop-on-load
1691 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1692
1693set spu auto-flush-cache
1694show spu auto-flush-cache
1695 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1696 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1697
1698set sh calling-convention
1699show sh calling-convention
1700 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1701
1702set debug timestamp
1703show debug timestamp
1704 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1705
1706set disassemble-next-line
1707show disassemble-next-line
1708 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1709 the debuggee stops.
1710
1711set remote noack-packet
1712show remote noack-packet
1713 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1714 under "New remote packets."
1715
1716set remote query-attached-packet
1717show remote query-attached-packet
1718 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1719
1720set remote read-siginfo-object
1721show remote read-siginfo-object
1722 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1723 packet.
1724
1725set remote write-siginfo-object
1726show remote write-siginfo-object
1727 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1728 packet.
1729
1730set remote reverse-continue
1731show remote reverse-continue
1732 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1733
1734set remote reverse-step
1735show remote reverse-step
1736 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1737
1738set displaced-stepping
1739show displaced-stepping
1740 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1741 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1742 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1743
1744set debug displaced
1745show debug displaced
1746 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1747
1748maint set internal-error
1749maint show internal-error
1750 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1751
1752maint set internal-warning
1753maint show internal-warning
1754 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1755
1756set exec-wrapper
1757show exec-wrapper
1758unset exec-wrapper
1759 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1760
1761set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1762show multiple-symbols
1763 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1764 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1765 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1766
1767set breakpoint always-inserted
1768show breakpoint always-inserted
1769 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1770 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1771 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1772
1773set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1774show arm fallback-mode
1775set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1776show arm force-mode
1777 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1778 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1779 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1780 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1781
1782set disable-randomization
1783show disable-randomization
1784 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1785 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1786 multiple debugging sessions.
1787
1788set non-stop
1789show non-stop
1790 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1791 a breakpoint.
1792
1793set target-async
1794show target-async
1795 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1796 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1797 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1798 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1799
1800set target-wide-charset
1801show target-wide-charset
1802 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1803 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1804
1805set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1806show tcp auto-retry
1807set tcp connect-timeout
1808show tcp connect-timeout
1809 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1810 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1811 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1812
1813set libthread-db-search-path
1814show libthread-db-search-path
1815 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1816 libthread_db.
1817
1818set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1819show schedule-multiple
1820 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1821 the current process.
1822
1823set stack-cache
1824show stack-cache
1825 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1826 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1827 affecting correctness.
1828
1829set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1830show interactive-mode
1831 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1832 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1833 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1834 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1835 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1836
1837* Removed commands
1838
1839info forks
1840 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1841 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1842 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1843 command.
1844
1845fork NUM
1846 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1847 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1848 alias for the `fork' command.
1849
1850process PID
1851 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1852 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1853 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1854
1855delete fork NUM
1856 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1857 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1858 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1859 fork' command.
1860
1861detach fork NUM
1862 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1863 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1864 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1865 fork' command.
1866
1867* New native configurations
1868
1869x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1870
1871x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1872
1873* New targets
1874
1875Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1876x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1877x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1878S+core 3 score-*-*
1879
1880* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1881 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1882
1883* Removed commands
1884
1885catch load
1886catch unload
1887 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1888
1889*** Changes in GDB 6.8
1890
1891* New native configurations
1892
1893NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1894Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1895
1896* New targets
1897
1898NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1899Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1900
1901* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1902
1903 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1904 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1905 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1906 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1907
1908* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1909(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1910
1911* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1912is resolved.
1913
1914* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1915including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1916and in inlined functions.
1917
1918* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1919accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1920more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1921
1922* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1923
1924* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1925registers on PowerPC targets.
1926
1927* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1928targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1929
1930* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1931commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1932
1933* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1934extended-remote mode.
1935
1936* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1937The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1938error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1939The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1940
1941* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1942building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1943target architectures.
1944
1945* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1946Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1947now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1948stored in two consecutive float registers.
1949
1950* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1951breakpoints now.
1952
1953* Improved support for debugging Ada
1954Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1955include:
1956 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1957 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1958 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1959 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1960 of an assignment
1961 - Improved command completion in Ada
1962 - Several bug fixes
1963
1964* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1965process.
1966
1967* New commands
1968
1969set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1970show print frame-arguments
1971 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1972 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1973
1974remote put
1975remote get
1976remote delete
1977 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1978
1979* New MI commands
1980
1981-target-file-put
1982-target-file-get
1983-target-file-delete
1984 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1985
1986* New remote packets
1987
1988vFile:open:
1989vFile:close:
1990vFile:pread:
1991vFile:pwrite:
1992vFile:unlink:
1993 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1994
1995vAttach
1996 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1997 mode.
1998
1999vRun
2000 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2001
2002*** Changes in GDB 6.7
2003
2004* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2005bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2006Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2007
2008* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2009symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2010-Bsymbolic linker option.
2011
2012* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2013recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2014is not supported.
2015
2016* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2017frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2018
2019* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
202032-bit or 64-bit register values.
2021
2022* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2023
2024* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2025target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2026a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2027
2028* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2029automatically displayed as character or string data.
2030
2031* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2032arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2033as strings.
2034
2035* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2036for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
2037only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
2038
2039* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2040iWMMXt coprocessor.
2041
2042* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2043ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2044has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2045
2046* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2047
2048* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2049
2050* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2051layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2052segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2053
2054* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2055immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2056
2057* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2058"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2059packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2060where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2061Windows and SymbianOS).
2062
2063* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2064(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
2065
2066* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2067according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
2068
2069* New commands
2070
2071set remoteflow
2072show remoteflow
2073 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2074 when debugging using remote targets.
2075
2076set mem inaccessible-by-default
2077show mem inaccessible-by-default
2078 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2079 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2080 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2081 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2082 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2083
2084set breakpoint auto-hw
2085show breakpoint auto-hw
2086 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2087 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2088 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2089 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2090 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2091 including "next" and "finish".
2092
2093catch exception
2094catch exception unhandled
2095 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2096
2097catch assert
2098 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2099
2100set sysroot
2101show sysroot
2102 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2103 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2104 an alias to "set sysroot".
2105
2106info spu
2107 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2108 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2109 architecture.
2110
2111* New native configurations
2112
2113OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2114
2115set tdesc filename
2116unset tdesc filename
2117show tdesc filename
2118 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2119 not query the target for its built-in description.
2120
2121* New targets
2122
2123OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
2124MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
2125Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
2126
2127* New remote packets
2128
2129QPassSignals:
2130 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2131 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2132
2133qXfer:features:read:
2134 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2135 features.
2136
2137qXfer:spu:read:
2138qXfer:spu:write:
2139 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2140 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2141
2142qXfer:libraries:read:
2143 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2144 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2145 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2146 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2147
2148* Removed targets
2149
2150Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2151
2152alpha*-*-osf1*
2153alpha*-*-osf2*
2154d10v-*-*
2155hppa*-*-hiux*
2156i[34567]86-ncr-*
2157i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2158i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2159i[34567]86-*-netware*
2160i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2161i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2162i[34567]86-*-sco*
2163i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2164i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2165i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2166i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2167i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2168i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2169i[34567]86-*-isc*
2170m68*-cisco*-*
2171m68*-tandem-*
2172mips*-*-pe
2173rs6000-*-lynxos*
2174sh*-*-pe
2175
2176* Other removed features
2177
2178target abug
2179target cpu32bug
2180target est
2181target rom68k
2182
2183 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2184
2185target hms
2186target e7000
2187target sh3
2188target sh3e
2189
2190 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2191 H8/300.
2192
2193target ocd
2194
2195 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2196 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2197 interfaces.
2198
2199DWARF 1 support
2200
2201 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2202 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2203
2204Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2205
2206 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2207 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2208 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2209 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2210
2211MIPS ".pdr" sections
2212
2213 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2214 in debugging information.
2215
2216Scheme support
2217
2218 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2219 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2220
2221set mips stack-arg-size
2222set mips saved-gpreg-size
2223
2224 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2225
2226*** Changes in GDB 6.6
2227
2228* New targets
2229
2230Xtensa xtensa-elf
2231Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
2232
2233* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2234(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2235running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2236
2237* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2238Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2239supported.
2240
2241* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2242broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2243
2244* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2245stub provides the required support.
2246
2247* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2248longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2249
2250* New commands
2251
2252set substitute-path
2253unset substitute-path
2254show substitute-path
2255 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2256 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2257 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2258 between compilation and debugging.
2259
2260set trace-commands
2261show trace-commands
2262 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2263 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2264 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2265
2266* REMOVED features
2267
2268The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2269
2270Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2271an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2272
2273The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2274
2275* New remote packets
2276
2277qSupported:
2278 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2279 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2280 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2281 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2282 target.
2283
2284qXfer:auxv:read:
2285 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2286 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2287
2288qXfer:memory-map:read:
2289 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2290 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2291
2292vFlashErase:
2293vFlashWrite:
2294vFlashDone:
2295 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2296
2297* Removed remote packets
2298
2299qPart:auxv:read:
2300 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2301 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2302
2303*** Changes in GDB 6.5
2304
2305* New targets
2306
2307Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2308
2309Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2310
2311* New commands
2312
2313init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2314 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2315
2316The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2317
2318checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2319
2320restart <n> Return the program state to a
2321 previously saved state.
2322
2323info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2324
2325delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2326
2327set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2328 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2329
2330info forks List forks of the user program that
2331 are available to be debugged.
2332
2333fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2334 forks of the user program that are
2335 available to be debugged.
2336
2337delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2338 that are available to be debugged (and
2339 kill the forked process).
2340
2341detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2342 that are available to be debugged (and
2343 allow the process to continue).
2344
2345* New architecture
2346
2347Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2348
2349* Improved Windows host support
2350
2351GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2352native console support, and remote communications using either
2353network sockets or serial ports.
2354
2355* Improved Modula-2 language support
2356
2357GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2358basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2359pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2360printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2361written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2362GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2363
2364* REMOVED features
2365
2366The ARM rdi-share module.
2367
2368The Netware NLM debug server.
2369
2370*** Changes in GDB 6.4
2371
2372* New native configurations
2373
2374OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
2375OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2376
2377* New targets
2378
2379Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2380
2381* New command line options
2382
2383--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2384--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2385 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2386--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2387 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2388 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2389 with the --command (-x) option.
2390
2391* Deprecated commands removed
2392
2393The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2394removed:
2395
2396 Command Replacement
2397 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2398 othernames set arm disassembler
2399 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2400 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2401 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2402 regs info registers
2403
2404* New BSD user-level threads support
2405
2406It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2407library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2408configurations are:
2409
2410FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2411FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2412OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2413
2414Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2415are not yet supported.
2416
2417* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2418(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2419
2420* REMOVED configurations and files
2421
2422VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
2423Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2424National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
2425
2426* New "set print array-indexes" command
2427
2428After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2429when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2430behavior.
2431
2432* VAX floating point support
2433
2434GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2435
2436* User-defined command support
2437
2438In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2439to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2440section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2441
2442*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2443
2444* New command line option
2445
2446GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2447debugging.
2448
2449* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2450
2451GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2452information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2453by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2454proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2455to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
2456
2457* Internationalization
2458
2459When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2460internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2461continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2462
2463* Ada
2464
2465Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2466implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2467into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2468
2469* New native configurations
2470
2471GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2472
2473* Remote 'p' packet
2474
2475GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2476packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2477
2478* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2479
2480GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2481The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2482features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2483i386 application).
2484
2485GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2486compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2487continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2488configurations:
2489
2490hppa-*-hpux
2491ia64-*-aix
2492mips-*-irix*
2493*-*-lynx
2494mips-*-linux-gnu
2495sds protocol
2496xdr protocol
2497powerpc bdm protocol
2498
2499Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2500made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2501
2502* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2503
2504Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2505been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2506configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2507permanently REMOVED.
2508
2509h8300-*-*
2510mcore-*-*
2511mn10300-*-*
2512ns32k-*-*
2513sh64-*-*
2514v850-*-*
2515
2516*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2517
2518* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2519
2520When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2521heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2522been fixed.
2523
2524* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2525
2526When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2527fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2528IRIX long double values).
2529
2530* VAX and "next"
2531
2532A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2533command. This problem has been fixed.
2534
2535*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
2536
2537* Fix for ``many threads''
2538
2539On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2540rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2541error message:
2542
2543 ptrace: No such process.
2544 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2545
2546This problem has been fixed.
2547
2548* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2549
2550Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2551GDB to dump core).
2552
2553* New ``start'' command.
2554
2555This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2556
2557* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2558
2559Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2560live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2561platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2562
2563FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2564FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2565NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2566NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2567NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2568OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2569OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2570OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2571OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2572
2573* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2574
2575Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2576These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2577of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2578call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2579signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2580
2581Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2582features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2583include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2584
2585* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2586
2587* New native configurations
2588
2589GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2590OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2591OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2592OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2593OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2594NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2595OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2596
2597* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2598
2599GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2600The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2601including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2602migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2603compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2604work, was also included.
2605
2606GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2607module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2608
2609h8300-*-*
2610mcore-*-*
2611mn10300-*-*
2612ns32k-*-*
2613sh64-*-*
2614v850-*-*
2615xstormy16-*-*
2616
2617Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2618made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2619
2620* REMOVED configurations and files
2621
2622Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2623Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2624Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2625Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2626Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2627AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2628Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2629decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2630riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2631sonymips mips-sony-*
2632sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2633
2634*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2635
2636* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2637
2638The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2639GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2640command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2641program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2642with GDB".
2643
2644* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2645
2646Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2647libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2648cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2649GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2650shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2651the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2652are created.
2653
2654Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2655
2656* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2657
2658The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2659non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2660compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2661
2662* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2663
2664Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2665wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2666
2667* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2668
2669The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2670permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2671systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2672
2673* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2674
2675Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2676has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2677
2678* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2679
2680GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2681its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2682panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2683
2684* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2685
2686When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2687by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2688not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2689
2690*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2691
2692* Removed --with-mmalloc
2693
2694Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2695conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2696
2697* Changes in AMD64 configurations
2698
2699The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2700the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2701and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2702you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2703
2704* Revised SPARC target
2705
2706The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2707FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2708support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2709from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2710(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2711
2712* New C++ demangler
2713
2714GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2715names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2716with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2717programs.
2718
2719* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2720
2721GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2722arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2723encountered these.
2724
2725* C++ nested types and namespaces
2726
2727GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2728improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2729is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2730Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2731namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2732"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2733frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2734if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2735GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2736
2737* New native configurations
2738
2739NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2740OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2741OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2742OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2743OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2744
2745* New debugging protocols
2746
2747M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2748
2749* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2750
2751The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2752and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2753tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2754
2755* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2756
2757Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2758been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2759configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2760permanently REMOVED.
2761
2762Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2763Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2764Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2765Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2766Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2767AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2768Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2769decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2770riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2771sonymips mips-sony-*
2772sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2773
2774* REMOVED configurations and files
2775
2776SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2777SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2778Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2779Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2780H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2781HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2782HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2783HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2784PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2785386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2786Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2787 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2788 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2789SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2790SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2791Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2792Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2793
2794*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2795
2796* Objective-C
2797
2798Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2799integrated into GDB.
2800
2801* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2802
2803DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2804information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2805By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2806backtraces.
2807
2808The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2809have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2810DWARF 2 CFI support.
2811
2812* Hosted file I/O.
2813
2814GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2815file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2816remote protocol documentation for details.
2817
2818* All targets using the new architecture framework.
2819
2820All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2821architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2822to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2823ppc32 on ppc64).
2824
2825* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2826
2827GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2828per-thread variables.
2829
2830* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2831
2832GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2833GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2834
2835* Separate debug info.
2836
2837GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2838automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2839of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2840system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2841and optional debug files.
2842
2843* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2844
2845DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2846describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2847debugger.
2848
2849GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2850for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2851
2852* Java
2853
2854A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2855Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2856considered "useable".
2857
2858* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2859
2860The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2861commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2862kernel.
2863
2864* GDB supports logging output to a file
2865
2866There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2867used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2868
2869* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2870
2871The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2872disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2873command.
2874
2875* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2876
2877The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2878registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2879
2880* Profiling support
2881
2882A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2883be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2884session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2885"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2886data, for more informative profiling results.
2887
2888* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2889
2890The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2891option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2892"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2893
2894Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2895removed.
2896
2897Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2898Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2899Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2900 in a subsequent -var-update.
2901
2902* New native configurations.
2903
2904FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2905
2906* Multi-arched targets.
2907
2908HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2909Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2910
2911* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2912
2913Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2914been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2915configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2916permanently REMOVED.
2917
2918Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2919Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2920H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2921HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2922HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2923HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2924PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2925Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2926 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2927 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2928Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2929Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2930
2931* REMOVED configurations and files
2932
2933V850EA ISA
2934Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2935IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2936i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2937i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2938i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2939HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2940 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2941 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2942Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2943Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2944Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2945OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2946I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2947
2948* MIPS $fp behavior changed
2949
2950The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2951the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2952context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2953address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2954The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2955
2956*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2957
2958* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2959
2960When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2961`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2962in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2963library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2964shared libs like mad''.
2965
2966* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2967
2968Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2969the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2970arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2971powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2972
2973* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2974
2975GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2976and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2977they expand.
2978
2979The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2980invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2981
2982The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2983macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2984
2985Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2986information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2987your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2988information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2989
2990* Multi-arched targets.
2991
2992DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2993DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2994NEC V850 v850-*-*
2995National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2996Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2997Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2998
2999* New targets.
3000
3001Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3002
3003
3004* New native configurations
3005
3006Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
3007SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
3008MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
3009UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
3010
3011* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3012
3013Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3014been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3015configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3016permanently REMOVED.
3017
3018Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3019OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3020IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3021Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3022Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3023Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3024i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3025i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3026i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3027HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3028 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3029 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3030I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3031
3032* OBSOLETE languages
3033
3034CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3035
3036* REMOVED configurations and files
3037
3038AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3039A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3040AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3041AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3042AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3043
3044testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3045
3046* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3047
3048This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3049commands. The default is 1024.
3050
3051* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3052
3053Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3054
3055* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3056
3057These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3058to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3059from a file into memory (restore).
3060
3061* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3062
3063The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3064including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3065of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3066
3067*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3068
3069* New targets.
3070
3071Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3072
3073* Bug fixes
3074
3075gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3076mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3077Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3078
3079gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3080dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3081Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3082
3083Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3084Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3085By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3086
3087i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3088avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3089By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3090
3091*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
3092
3093* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3094
3095This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3096really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3097In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3098target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3099This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3100(notably embedded) targets.
3101
3102* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3103
3104This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3105process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3106GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3107hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
3108
3109* New command line option
3110
3111GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3112
3113* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3114
3115There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3116command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3117a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3118be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3119open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3120issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3121a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3122it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3123GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3124is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3125
3126* Changes in ARM configurations.
3127
3128Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3129configuration is fully multi-arch.
3130
3131* New native configurations
3132
3133ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
3134x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
3135AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
3136Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
3137
3138* New targets
3139
3140Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3141
3142* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3143
3144Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3145been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3146configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3147permanently REMOVED.
3148
3149AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3150A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3151AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3152AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3153AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3154
3155testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3156
3157* REMOVED configurations and files
3158
3159TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3160WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3161PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3162PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3163PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3164Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3165Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3166 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3167SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3168Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3169Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3170ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3171Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
3172
3173* Changes to command line processing
3174
3175The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3176for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3177
3178* Changes to key bindings
3179
3180There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3181
3182*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3183
3184Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3185
3186Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3187corrupted.
3188
3189Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3190
3191Numerous documentation fixes.
3192
3193Numerous testsuite fixes.
3194
3195*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
3196
3197* New native configurations
3198
3199Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3200x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
3201MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
3202MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3203ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
3204s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
3205
3206* New targets
3207
3208Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
3209CRIS cris-axis
3210UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
3211
3212* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3213
3214x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
3215Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3216Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3217 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3218TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3219WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3220Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3221PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3222PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3223PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3224SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3225Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3226ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3227Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
3228
3229stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3230kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3231
3232Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3233been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3234configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3235permanently REMOVED.
3236
3237* REMOVED configurations and files
3238
3239Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3240Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3241Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3242ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3243Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3244ser-ocd.c *-*-*
3245
3246* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
3247
3248GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
3249sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3250present.
3251
3252* Other news:
3253
3254* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3255
3256* The MI enabled by default.
3257
3258The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3259revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3260engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3261using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3262which is now deprecated.
3263
3264* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3265
3266GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3267main features are supported:
3268
3269 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3270
3271 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3272 extension;
3273
3274 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3275
3276 - a Pascal expression parser.
3277
3278However, some important features are not yet supported.
3279
3280 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3281
3282 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3283
3284 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3285 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3286
3287 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3288
3289 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3290
3291* Changes in completion.
3292
3293Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3294to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3295users expect at the shell prompt.
3296
3297Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3298`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3299program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3300files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3301be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3302considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3303name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3304
3305`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3306
3307* New platform-independent commands:
3308
3309It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3310hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3311documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3312
3313* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3314
3315Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3316revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3317many threads as your system allows you to have.
3318
3319Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3320
3321Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3322multi-threaded programs though.
3323
3324* Changes in MIPS configurations.
3325
3326Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3327
3328GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3329debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3330supported.)
3331
3332* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3333
3334Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3335breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3336implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3337put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3338and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3339registers.
3340
3341The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3342debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3343watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3344
3345* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3346
3347New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3348the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3349
3350New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3351display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3352IDT.
3353
3354New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3355from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3356New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3357a given linear address.
3358
3359GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3360program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3361which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3362
3363DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3364
3365It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3366
3367* Changes in documentation.
3368
3369All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3370Documentation License.
3371
3372Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3373manual.
3374
3375TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3376
3377Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3378manual.
3379
3380The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3381documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3382hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3383
3384* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3385
3386The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3387``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3388contents of this file.
3389
3390* gdba.el deleted
3391
3392GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
3393
3394*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
3395
3396* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3397
3398Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3399programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3400displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3401greater level of detail.
3402
3403* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3404
3405It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3406bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3407on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3408written.
3409
3410* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3411
3412The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3413necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3414machines ``out of the box''.
3415
3416The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3417possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3418signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3419would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3420interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3421
3422It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3423standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3424even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3425and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3426terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3427
3428The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3429enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3430also works.
3431
3432DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3433GDB.
3434
3435It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3436directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3437times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3438breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3439
3440* New native configurations
3441
3442ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
3443PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3444
3445* New targets
3446
3447Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
3448x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3449PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
3450TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3451
3452* OBSOLETE configurations
3453
3454Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3455Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3456Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3457ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3458Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3459
3460Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3461but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3462these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3463be permanently REMOVED.
3464
3465* Gould support removed
3466
3467Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3468
3469* New features for SVR4
3470
3471On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3472without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3473load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3474
3475* Many C++ enhancements
3476
3477C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3478in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3479
3480* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3481
3482A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3483sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3484with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3485``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3486
3487 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3488 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3489
3490* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3491
3492A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3493expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3494instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3495
3496The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3497added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3498
3499* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3500
3501The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3502``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3503include ``set remote P-packet''.
3504
3505* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3506
3507The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3508accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3509``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3510
3511* ``apropos'' command added.
3512
3513The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3514documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3515try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3516
3517* New MI interface
3518
3519A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3520interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
3521process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3522"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3523enabled by configuring with:
3524
3525 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3526
3527*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3528
3529* New native configurations
3530
3531HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3532HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
3533M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
3534
3535* New targets
3536
3537Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3538Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3539Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3540
3541* OBSOLETE configurations
3542
3543Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3544
3545Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3546but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3547these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3548be permanently REMOVED.
3549
3550* ANSI/ISO C
3551
3552As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3553buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3554containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3555use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3556available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3557configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3558information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3559already.
3560
3561* Readline 2.2
3562
3563GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3564
3565* set extension-language
3566
3567You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3568languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3569you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3570 set extension-language .c c++
3571The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3572and their associated languages.
3573
3574* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3575
3576When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3577you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3578PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3579
3580 set processor NAME
3581
3582sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3583following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3584
3585 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3586 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3587 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3588 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3589 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3590 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3591 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3592 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3593 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3594 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3595 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3596
3597At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3598special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3599registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3600only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3601
3602* HP-UX support
3603
3604Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3605more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3606library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3607support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3608for xdb and dbx commands.
3609
3610* Catchpoints
3611
3612HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3613generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3614to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3615
3616This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3617argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3618output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3619
3620* Debugging across forks
3621
3622On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3623in the inferior.
3624
3625* TUI
3626
3627HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3628it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3629configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3630
3631* GDB remote protocol additions
3632
3633A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3634Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3635fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3636allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3637
3638For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3639full 64-bit address. The command
3640
3641 set remoteaddresssize 32
3642
3643can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3644the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3645will be discarded.
3646
3647In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3648command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3649
3650 maint packet heythere
3651
3652sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3653disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3654time.
3655
3656The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3657target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3658downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3659
3660* Tracing can collect general expressions
3661
3662You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3663further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3664doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3665
3666* mask-address variable for Mips
3667
3668For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3669a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3670of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3671
3672* Higher serial baud rates
3673
3674GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3675230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3676to achieve all of these rates.)
3677
3678* i960 simulator
3679
3680The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3681builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3682
3683
3684*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3685
3686* New native configurations
3687
3688Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3689Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3690Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3691PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3692PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3693Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3694Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3695
3696* New targets
3697
3698Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3699Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3700Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3701Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3702MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3703MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3704MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3705Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3706Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3707Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3708NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3709
3710* New debugging protocols
3711
3712ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3713M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3714DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3715PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3716PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3717Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3718
3719* DWARF 2
3720
3721All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3722format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3723information.
3724
3725* Java frontend
3726
3727GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3728only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3729
3730* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3731
3732For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3733loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3734locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3735
3736* Live range splitting
3737
3738GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3739range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3740more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3741
3742* Hurd support
3743
3744GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3745updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3746
3747* ARM Thumb support
3748
3749GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3750instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3751instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3752accordingly.
3753
3754* MIPS16 support
3755
3756GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3757instruction set.
3758
3759* Overlay support
3760
3761GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3762linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3763will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3764control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3765additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3766in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3767
3768* info symbol
3769
3770The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3771the symbol at the specified address.
3772
3773* Trace support
3774
3775The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3776asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3777extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3778includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3779file tracepoint.c for more details.
3780
3781* MIPS simulator
3782
3783Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3784by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3785of most MIPS variants.
3786
3787* Sparc simulator
3788
3789Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3790by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3791Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3792
3793* set architecture
3794
3795For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3796basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3797architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3798the possible architectures.
3799
3800*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3801
3802* New native configurations
3803
3804Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3805M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3806PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3807PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3808PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3809RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3810
3811* New targets
3812
3813ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3814I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3815MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3816MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3817PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3818Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3819Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3820
3821* PowerPC simulator
3822
3823The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3824contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3825PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3826basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3827performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3828
3829* Solaris 2.5
3830
3831GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3832
3833* Windows 95/NT native
3834
3835GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3836To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3837which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3838Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3839ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3840
3841* dont-repeat command
3842
3843If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3844command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3845useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3846extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3847
3848* Send break instead of ^C
3849
3850The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3851rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3852GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3853
3854* Remote protocol timeout
3855
3856The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3857that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3858to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3859
3860* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3861
3862By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3863loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3864stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3865when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3866in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3867
3868Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3869/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3870automatically on hpux10.
3871
3872* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3873
3874Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3875
3876* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3877
3878When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3879may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3880the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3881every character. The default value is 1050.
3882
3883* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3884
3885If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3886a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3887replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3888details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3889remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3890to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3891
3892* Speedups for remote debugging
3893
3894GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3895the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3896and more efficient S-record downloading.
3897
3898* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3899
3900GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3901Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3902
3903*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3904
3905* Psymtabs for XCOFF
3906
3907The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3908can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3909
3910* Remote targets use caching
3911
3912Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3913remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3914it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3915debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3916off' turns the the data cache off.
3917
3918* Remote targets may have threads
3919
3920The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3921in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3922gdb/remote.c for details.
3923
3924* NetROM support
3925
3926If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3927support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3928acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3929write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3930support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3931another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3932sequence is something like
3933
3934 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3935 load <prog>
3936 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3937
3938* Macintosh host
3939
3940GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3941may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3942it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3943available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3944device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3945directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3946scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3947mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3948
3949* Autoconf
3950
3951GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3952but does simplify configuration and building.
3953
3954* hpux10
3955
3956GDB now supports hpux10.
3957
3958*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3959
3960* New native configurations
3961
3962x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3963x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3964NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3965Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3966
3967* New targets
3968
3969A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3970HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3971CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3972PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3973WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3974
3975* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3976
3977GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3978possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3979filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3980the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3981if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3982
3983* Arguments to user-defined commands
3984
3985User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3986Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3987trivial example:
3988define adder
3989 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3990
3991To execute the command use:
3992adder 1 2 3
3993
3994Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3995Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3996use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3997
3998* New `if' and `while' commands
3999
4000This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4001commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4002expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4003execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4004terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4005`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4006if the expression is zero.
4007
4008* Fortran source language mode
4009
4010GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4011Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4012variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4013with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4014Fortran compilers.
4015
4016* Better HPUX support
4017
4018Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4019running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4020processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4021for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4022that behavior do the following before running the program:
4023
4024 adb -w a.out
4025 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4026 control-d
4027
4028This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4029To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4030
4031 adb -w a.out
4032 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4033 control-d
4034
4035You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4036the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4037external linkage.
4038
4039GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4040HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4041
4042* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4043
4044You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4045commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4046current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4047"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4048associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4049configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4050
4051* New DOS host serial code
4052
4053This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4054no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4055a PC's serial port.
4056
4057*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4058
4059* New "complete" command
4060
4061This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4062were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4063
4064* Trailing space optional in prompt
4065
4066"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4067allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4068
4069* Breakpoint hit counts
4070
4071"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4072has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4073can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4074to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4075less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4076that breakpoint.
4077
4078* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4079
4080"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4081an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4082arrays actually contain only short strings.
4083
4084* Shared library breakpoints
4085
4086In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4087breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4088
4089* Hardware watchpoints
4090
4091There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4092targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4093
4094Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
4095
4096* Annotations
4097
4098Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4099and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4100
4101* Improved Irix 5 support
4102
4103GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4104
4105* Improved HPPA support
4106
4107GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4108
4109* New native configurations
4110
4111Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4112HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4113Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4114RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4115
4116* New targets
4117
4118OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4119MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4120Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4121
4122* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4123
4124There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4125This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4126
4127* Fixes
4128
4129As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4130and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4131
4132*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4133
4134* Irix 5 is now supported
4135
4136* HPPA support
4137
4138GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4139to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4140GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4141of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4142can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4143
4144
4145*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4146
4147* User visible changes:
4148
4149* Remote Debugging
4150
4151The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4152target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4153debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4154integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4155debugging info for the mips target).
4156
4157* DEC Alpha native support
4158
4159GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4160debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4161work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4162Alpha-specific notes.
4163
4164* Preliminary thread implementation
4165
4166GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4167
4168* LynxOS native and target support for 386
4169
4170This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4171to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4172for details).
4173
4174* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4175
4176This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4177mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4178call methods, ...etc.
4179
4180*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4181
4182 * User visible changes:
4183
4184Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4185supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4186other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4187somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4188
4189Filename completion now works.
4190
4191When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4192arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4193addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4194
4195All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4196vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4197should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4198your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4199to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4200
4201 * DEC alpha support
4202
4203This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4204cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4205
4206
4207*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4208
4209 * Testsuite
4210
4211This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4212The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4213via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4214
4215 * C++ demangling
4216
4217'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4218emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4219Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4220disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4221use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4222
4223 * Simulators
4224
4225GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4226So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4227Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4228
4229 * New targets supported
4230
4231H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4232H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4233SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4234Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4235IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4236
4237Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4238version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4239GO32 memory extender.
4240
4241 * New remote protocols
4242
4243MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4244
4245 * New source languages supported
4246
4247This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4248used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4249into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4250
4251
4252*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4253
4254 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4255
4256GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4257version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4258University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4259compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4260format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4261(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4262
4263Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4264
4265 * Faster and better demangling
4266
4267We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4268demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4269character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4270only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4271This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4272increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4273symbol lookups.
4274
4275`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4276from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4277compiler does not actually implement.
4278
4279 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4280
4281In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4282inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4283recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4284very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4285The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4286circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4287fix.
4288
4289The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4290release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4291
4292 * Improved configure script
4293
4294The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4295you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4296host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4297done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4298
4299We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4300version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4301`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4302The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4303only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4304We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4305
4306 * Documentation improvements
4307
4308There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4309produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4310before submitting changes.
4311
4312The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4313M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4314`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4315you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4316a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4317
4318*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4319We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4320been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4321or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4322`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4323around this problem.
4324
4325 * New features
4326
4327GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4328the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4329`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4330the target program.
4331
4332The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4333how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4334
4335 * New native hosts supported
4336
4337HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4338386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4339
4340 * New targets supported
4341
4342AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4343
4344 * New file formats supported
4345
4346BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4347HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4348
4349 * Major bug fixes
4350
4351Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4352
4353We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4354printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4355
4356We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4357for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4358release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4359
4360You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4361will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4362
4363We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4364for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4365especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4366libraries.
4367
4368The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4369information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4370command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4371any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4372when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4373
4374 * Internal improvements
4375
4376GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4377debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4378
4379GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4380Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4381symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4382contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4383shared code that handles any of them.
4384
4385 * New command line options
4386
4387We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4388
4389 * Mmalloc licensing
4390
4391The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4392General Public License.
4393
4394*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4395
4396 * Host/native/target split
4397
4398GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4399hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4400target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4401local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4402ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4403
4404The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4405GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4406is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4407code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4408any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4409built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4410handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4411
4412GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4413It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4414plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4415
4416 * New hosts supported
4417
4418HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4419386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4420386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4421
4422 * New targets supported
4423
4424Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
442568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4426
4427 * New native hosts supported
4428
4429386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4430 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4431386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4432
4433 * New file formats supported
4434
4435BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4436supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4437format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4438
4439 * New commands
4440
4441`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4442`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4443These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4444
4445`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4446
4447You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4448scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4449prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4450executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4451
4452 * C++ improvements
4453
4454We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4455info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4456symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4457
4458Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4459
4460 * Major bug fixes
4461
4462The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4463fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4464by the compiler.
4465
4466We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4467support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4468
4469John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4470slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4471that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4472purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4473the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4474mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4475
4476Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4477about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4478completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4479we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4480
4481 * AMD 29k support
4482
4483A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4484specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4485calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4486usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4487in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4488
4489We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4490Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4491of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4492resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4493
4494 * Remote interfaces
4495
4496We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4497with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4498message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4499This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4500needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4501breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4502each instruction being stepped through.
4503
4504The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4505registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4506
4507There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4508find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4509Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4510processor with a serial port.
4511
4512 * Configuration
4513
4514Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4515`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4516supported, and what files each one uses.
4517
4518 * Library changes
4519
4520There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4521disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4522Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4523disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4524
4525The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4526Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4527can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4528grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4529
4530 * Documentation
4531
4532The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4533reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4534as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4535encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4536system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4537bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4538
4539And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4540
4541
4542*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4543
4544 * Better support for C++ function names
4545
4546GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4547names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4548(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4549single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4550Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4551
4552GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4553the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4554You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4555lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4556for the list of formats.
4557
4558 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4559
4560Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4561C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4562directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4563can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4564usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4565about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4566this problem.)
4567
4568 * New 'maintenance' command
4569
4570All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4571the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4572can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4573
4574 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4575 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4576 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4577 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4578 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4579 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4580
4581The following commands are new:
4582
4583 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4584 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4585 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4586
4587 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4588
4589We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4590(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4591be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4592read after argv processing.
4593
4594 * New hosts supported
4595
4596Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4597
4598GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4599
4600We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4601is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4602for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4603masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4604fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4605It costs extra.
4606
4607 * New targets supported
4608
4609Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4610
4611 * More smarts about finding #include files
4612
4613GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4614all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4615greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4616especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4617the one that contains your sources.
4618
4619We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4620breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4621try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4622
4623 * Interesting infernals change
4624
4625GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4626section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4627target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4628stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4629
4630 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4631
4632There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4633 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4634 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4635
4636See the ChangeLog for details.
4637
4638*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4639
4640 * New machines supported (host and target)
4641
4642IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4643
4644SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4645
4646 * New malloc package
4647
4648GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4649Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4650capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4651This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4652pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4653more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4654
4655 * info proc
4656
4657The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4658'help info proc' for details.
4659
4660 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4661
4662The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4663Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4664possible.
4665
4666 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4667
4668Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4669support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4670conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4671environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4672that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4673in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4674
4675 * Cross byte order fixes
4676
4677Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4678targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4679
4680 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4681
4682If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4683system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4684`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4685program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4686called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4687Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4688and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4689the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4690option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4691starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4692
4693You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4694the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4695information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4696slower, but makes future operations faster.
4697
4698The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4699build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4700A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4701use is:
4702
4703 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4704
4705The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4706It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4707shared across multiple host platforms.
4708
4709 * longjmp() handling
4710
4711GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4712siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4713all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4714platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4715
4716 * Solaris 2.0
4717
4718Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4719this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4720reading symbols.
4721
4722 * Bug fixes
4723
4724As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4725People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4726crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4727
4728*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4729
4730 * New machines supported (host and target)
4731
4732SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4733 (except core files)
4734BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4735Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4736
4737 * New machines supported (target)
4738
4739AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4740
4741 * C++ support
4742
4743GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4744The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4745per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4746
4747GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4748`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4749extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4750good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4751will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4752released.
4753
4754 * New features for SVR4
4755
4756GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4757shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4758only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4759
4760The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4761on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4762it prints the address mappings of the process.
4763
4764If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4765bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4766
4767 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4768
4769Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4770now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4771skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4772make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4773same code linked statically.
4774
4775 * New Getopt
4776
4777GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4778version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4779continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4780Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4781added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4782future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4783
4784 * Bugs fixed
4785
4786The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4787Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4788See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4789
4790
4791*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4792
4793 * New machines supported (host and target)
4794
4795Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4796NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4797Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4798
4799 * Almost SCO Unix support
4800
4801We had hoped to support:
4802SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4803(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4804that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4805about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4806
4807 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4808
4809GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4810debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4811is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4812send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4813reqired (if any).
4814
4815 * New Readline
4816
4817GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4818is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4819required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4820
4821 * Bugs fixed
4822
4823The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4824Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4825See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4826
4827 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4828
4829GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4830supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4831symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4832
4833Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4834mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4835debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4836mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4837version 2.
4838
4839Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4840really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4841line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4842variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4843situation somewhat.
4844
4845When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4846However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4847methods.
4848
4849We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4850DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4851encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4852
4853
4854*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4855
4856 * Improved configuration
4857
4858Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4859Porting BFD is simpler.
4860
4861 * Stepping improved
4862
4863The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4864of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4865in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4866function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4867
4868 * Bug fixing
4869
4870Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4871
4872 * New host supported (not target)
4873
4874Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4875
4876
4877*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4878
4879 * Multiple source language support
4880
4881GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4882It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4883and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4884language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4885You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4886`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4887
4888 * GDB and Modula-2
4889
4890GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4891currently under development at the State University of New York at
4892Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4893continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4894
4895Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4896debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4897symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4898
4899There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4900in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4901
4902 * set write on/off
4903
4904GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4905a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4906the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4907by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4908effect immediately.
4909
4910 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4911
4912When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4913shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4914The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4915examining core files.
4916
4917 * set listsize
4918
4919You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4920The default is 10.
4921
4922 * New machines supported (host and target)
4923
4924SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4925Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4926Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4927
4928 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4929
4930IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4931
4932 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4933
4934AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4935AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4936Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4937
4938 * New remote interfaces
4939
4940AMD 29000 Adapt
4941AMD 29000 Minimon
4942
4943
4944*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4945
4946 * New Facilities
4947
4948Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4949
4950Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4951target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4952is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4953remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4954remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4955also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4956using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4957stub on the target system.
4958
4959New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4960
4961GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4962library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4963object file types such as a.out and coff.
4964
4965There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4966refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4967
4968
4969 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4970
4971All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4972by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4973
4974For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4975``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4976Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4977
4978What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4979print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4980will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4981all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4982
4983confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4984 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4985 it is already running. Default is ON.
4986
4987editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4988 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4989 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4990 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4991 Default is ON.
4992
4993history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4994 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4995 or the value of the environment variable
4996 GDBHISTFILE.
4997
4998history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4999 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5000 HISTSIZE.
5001
5002history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5003 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5004 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5005
5006history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5007 history expansion will be performed on
5008 command line input. The default is OFF.
5009
5010radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5011 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5012 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5013
5014height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5015 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5016 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5017 variable TERM.
5018
5019width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5020 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5021 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5022 variable TERM.
5023
5024Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5025``set width'' instead.
5026
5027print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5028 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5029 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5030 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5031
5032print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5033 is OFF.
5034
5035print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5036 "raw" form if off.
5037
5038print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5039 like instructions.
5040
5041print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5042
5043
5044 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5045
5046The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5047new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5048are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5049window.
5050
5051
5052 * Support for Shared Libraries
5053
5054GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5055Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5056before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5057happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5058At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5059from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5060shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5061It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5062
5063sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5064 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5065 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5066
5067info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5068
5069
5070 * Watchpoints
5071
5072A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5073expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5074tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5075quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5076problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5077more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5078
5079watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5080
5081info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5082
5083delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5084disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5085enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5086
5087
5088 * C++ multiple inheritance
5089
5090When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5091for C++ programs.
5092
5093 * C++ exception handling
5094
5095Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5096ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5097the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5098handler's context).
5099
5100catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5101 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5102 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5103
5104info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5105 current stack frame.
5106
5107
5108 * Minor command changes
5109
5110The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5111command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5112is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5113
5114The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5115at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5116frames without printing.
5117
5118 * New directory command
5119
5120'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5121The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5122about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5123with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5124find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5125
5126 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5127
5128For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5129for more details.
5130
5131GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5132two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5133Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5134where the program that you are debugging will run.
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