Use the correct constants when setting the section type of HPPA unwind sections.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
... / ...
CommitLineData
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4*** Changes since GDB 8.2
5
6* GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
7 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
8 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
9
10* DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
11 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
12
13* New commands
14
15frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
16 Apply a command to some frames.
17 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
18 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
19
20taas COMMAND
21 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
22 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
23
24faas COMMAND
25 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
26 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
27
28tfaas COMMAND
29 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
30 output).
31 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
32
33maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
34maint show dwarf unwinders
35 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
36
37* Changed commands
38
39thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
40 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
41 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
42 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
43
44* MI changes
45
46 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
47 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
48 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
49 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
50 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
51
52* New native configurations
53
54GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
55
56* New targets
57
58GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
59
60*** Changes in GDB 8.2
61
62* The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
63 for the MIPS target.
64
65* The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
66 offset to all sections.
67
68* Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
69 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
70 address of individual sections using '-s'.
71
72* The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
73 (address of the text section).
74
75* The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
76 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
77 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
78 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
79 default.
80
81* The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
82 for the rest of the current command.
83
84* The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
85 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
86
87* 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
88 files created on FreeBSD systems.
89
90* C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
91 alignof.
92
93* Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
94 the vector length while the process is running.
95
96* New commands
97
98set debug fbsd-nat
99show debug fbsd-nat
100 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
101
102set|show varsize-limit
103 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
104 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
105 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
106
107set|show record btrace cpu
108 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
109 branch trace decode.
110
111maint check libthread-db
112 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
113 library
114
115maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
116maint show check-libthread-db
117 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
118 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
119 perform such checks.
120
121* Python API
122
123 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
124
125 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
126 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
127
128 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
129
130 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
131 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
132 of convenience variables.
133
134 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
135 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
136 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
137
138* New targets
139
140RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
141
142* Removed targets and native configurations
143
144m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
145SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
146SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
147SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
148
149* Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
150
151 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
152 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
153 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
154 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
155 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
156 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
157 reported.
158
159* Configure changes
160
161--enable-codesign=CERT
162 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
163 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
164 gdb to work properly.
165
166--disable-gdbcli has been removed
167 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
168
169*** Changes in GDB 8.1
170
171* GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
172 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
173 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
174
175* The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
176 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
177
178* New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
179 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
180 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
181 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
182 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
183
184* GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
185 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
186 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
187 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
188
189* GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
190 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
191
192* On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
193 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
194 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
195
196 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
197 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
198 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
199
200 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
201 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
202 environment" command.
203
204* Completion improvements
205
206 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
207 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
208 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
209 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
210 correctly:
211
212 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
213 (gdb) b function(int)
214
215 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
216 C++ anonymous namespaces:
217
218 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
219 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
220 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
221 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
222
223 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
224 completion support, that better understands what you're
225 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
226 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
227 setting a breakpoint.
228
229 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
230
231 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
232
233* New command line options (gcore)
234
235-a
236 Dump all memory mappings.
237
238* Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
239
240 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
241 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
242 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
243
244 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
245
246 A::B::func()
247 B::func()
248
249 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
250 on both symbols.
251
252 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
253 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
254 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
255 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
256 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
257 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
258 a breakpoint from Python.
259
260* Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
261
262 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
263 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
264 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
265
266 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
267
268 function[abi:cxx11](int)
269 ^^^^^^^^^^^
270
271 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
272 no tag, like:
273
274 (gdb) b function(int)
275
276 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
277
278 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
279
280 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
281
282* Python Scripting
283
284 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
285 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
286 description of these.
287
288 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
289 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
290 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
291
292 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
293 manual for a further description of this feature.
294
295
296* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
297
298 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
299 specified initial working directory.
300
301 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
302 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
303
304 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
305 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
306
307 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
308 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
309
310 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
311 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
312 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
313 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
314 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
315
316 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
317 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
318 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
319
320* When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
321 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
322 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
323 in the *stopped notification.
324
325* Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
326 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
327
328* New remote packets
329
330QEnvironmentHexEncoded
331 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
332 the inferior when starting it.
333
334QEnvironmentUnset
335 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
336 before starting the remote inferior.
337
338QEnvironmentReset
339 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
340 user-set environment variables should be unset).
341
342QStartupWithShell
343 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
344
345QSetWorkingDir
346 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
347 working directory.
348
349* The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
350 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
351
352* The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
353 filter the tests to be run.
354
355* The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
356 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
357
358* New commands
359
360set|show cwd
361 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
362
363set|show compile-gcc
364 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
365 with the 'compile' commands.
366
367set debug separate-debug-file
368show debug separate-debug-file
369 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
370
371set dump-excluded-mappings
372show dump-excluded-mappings
373 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
374 dumped when generating a core file.
375
376maint info selftests
377 List the registered selftests.
378
379starti
380 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
381
382set|show debug or1k
383 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
384
385set|show print type nested-type-limit
386 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
387 type printer will show.
388
389* TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
390 `o' for nexti.
391
392* Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
393
394 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
395 'int'.
396
397 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
398 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
399 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
400 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
401
402 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
403 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
404 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
405 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
406 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
407 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
408
409 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
410 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
411 unless you tell it the variable's type:
412
413 (gdb) p var
414 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
415 (gdb) p (float) var
416 $3 = 3.14
417
418* New native configurations
419
420FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
421FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
422
423* New targets
424
425FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
426FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
427OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
428
429* Removed targets and native configurations
430
431Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
432
433*** Changes in GDB 8.0
434
435* GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
436 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
437 available in future Intel CPUs.
438
439* GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
440
441* Python Scripting
442
443 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
444 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
445
446* GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
447 instructions.
448
449* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
450
451 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
452
453 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
454 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
455 removed.
456
457* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
458
459 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
460 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
461
462* Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
463
464 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
465 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
466 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
467 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
468 features.
469
470* Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
471
472 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
473 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
474 debugger.
475
476* Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
477
478* User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
479 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
480
481* The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
482
483 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
484
485 define mycommand
486 set $i = 0
487 while $i < $argc
488 eval "print $arg%d", $i
489 set $i = $i + 1
490 end
491 end
492
493* Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
494
495* GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
496 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
497
498* New native configurations
499
500FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
501
502* New targets
503
504Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
505FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
506
507* Removed targets and native configurations
508
509Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
510Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
511
512* New commands
513
514flash-erase
515 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
516
517maint print arc arc-instruction address
518 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
519
520* New options
521
522set disassembler-options
523show disassembler-options
524 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
525 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
526 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
527 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
528 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
529
530* New MI commands
531
532-target-flash-erase
533 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
534 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
535
536-file-list-shared-libraries
537 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
538 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
539
540-catch-handlers
541 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
542 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
543
544*** Changes in GDB 7.12
545
546* GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
547
548 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
549 default. One must now explicitly configure with
550 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
551 option will be removed in a future release.
552
553* GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
554 GDB connection.
555
556* GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
557 memory backward from the given address. For example:
558
559 (gdb) bt
560 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
561 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
562 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
563 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
564 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
565 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
566 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
567 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
568 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
569
570* Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
571 arrays of dynamic types.
572
573* The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
574maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
575maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
576maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
577maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
578maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
579
580* GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
581 descriptions.
582
583* New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
584 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
585 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
586
587* Intel MPX bound violation handling.
588
589 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
590 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
591 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
592 signal received and code location.
593
594 For example:
595
596 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
597 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
598 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
599 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
600
601* Rust language support.
602 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
603 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
604 Rust.
605
606* Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
607
608 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
609 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
610 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
611 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
612 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
613 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
614 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
615 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
616 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
617 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
618 line.
619
620* The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
621
622 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
623 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
624
625* New commands
626
627skip -file file
628skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
629skip -function function
630skip -rfunction regular-expression
631 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
632 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
633 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
634
635maint info line-table REGEXP
636 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
637
638maint selftest
639 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
640
641new-ui INTERP TTY
642 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
643 using the TTY file for input/output.
644
645* Python Scripting
646
647 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
648 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
649 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
650 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
651 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
652
653signal-event EVENTID
654 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
655 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
656 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
657 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
658 signalling an event.
659
660* Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
661 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
662 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
663
664* Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
665 been removed:
666
667 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
668 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
669 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
670 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
671 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
672 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
673
674* Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
675 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
676 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
677 bytecode into native code.
678
679* MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
680 recording. For example:
681
682 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
683
684* MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
685
686 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
687
688* New targets
689
690Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
691
692*** Changes in GDB 7.11
693
694* GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
695
696* Per-inferior thread numbers
697
698 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
699 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
700 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
701
702 (gdb) info threads
703 Id Target Id Frame
704 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
705 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
706 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
707 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
708
709 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
710 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
711 are no longer unique between inferiors.
712
713 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
714 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
715 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
716
717 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
718 IDs.
719
720* Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
721 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
722
723 (gdb) thread 2.1
724 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
725 (gdb)
726
727* In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
728 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
729 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
730 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
731 threads 2.*".
732
733* You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
734 all threads.
735
736* The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
737 the current thread.
738
739* The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
740 current inferior.
741
742* GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
743 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
744 example:
745
746 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
747 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
748
749* Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
750
751* Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
752
753* The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
754 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
755
756* GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
757 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
758 clients.
759
760* Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
761 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
762 at the same time.
763
764* Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
765 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
766 into native code.
767
768* GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
769
770* "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
771 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
772 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
773
774* In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
775 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
776
777* New commands
778
779maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
780maint show target-non-stop
781 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
782 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
783 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
784
785maint set bfd-sharing
786maint show bfd-sharing
787 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
788
789set debug bfd-cache
790show debug bfd-cache
791 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
792
793set debug fbsd-lwp
794show debug fbsd-lwp
795 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
796
797set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
798show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
799 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
800
801set remote thread-events
802show remote thread-events
803 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
804
805set ada print-signatures on|off
806show ada print-signatures"
807 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
808 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
809
810set max-value-size
811show max-value-size
812 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
813 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
814 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
815
816* The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
817 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
818 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
819 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
820 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
821 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
822
823* The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
824 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
825
826* The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
827 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
828
829* Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
830
831 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
832 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
833 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
834 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
835 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
836 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
837
838* Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
839 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
840
841catch handlers
842 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
843
844* New remote packets
845
846exec stop reason
847 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
848
849exec-events feature in qSupported
850 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
851 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
852 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
853 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
854
855vCtrlC
856 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
857 non-stop mode.
858
859thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
860 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
861
862thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
863 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
864
865QThreadEvents
866 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
867 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
868 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
869 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
870 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
871 stop for that same thread.
872
873N stop reply
874 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
875 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
876 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
877
878QCatchSyscalls
879 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
880 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
881
882syscall_entry stop reason
883 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
884
885syscall_return stop reason
886 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
887
888* Extended-remote exec events
889
890 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
891 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
892 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
893
894set remote exec-event-feature-packet
895show remote exec-event-feature-packet
896 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
897
898 * Thread names in remote protocol
899
900 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
901 thread.
902
903* Target remote mode fork and exec events
904
905 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
906 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
907 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
908 fork and exec catchpoints.
909
910* Remote syscall events
911
912 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
913 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
914
915set remote catch-syscall-packet
916show remote catch-syscall-packet
917 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
918
919* MI changes
920
921 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
922 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
923 left.
924
925* Python Scripting
926
927 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
928 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
929 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
930 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
931 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
932 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
933
934*** Changes in GDB 7.10
935
936* Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
937 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
938 including advance SIMD instructions.
939
940* Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
941
942* GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
943 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
944 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
945 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
946 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
947 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
948 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
949
950* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
951 cpu information :
952 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
953
954* GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
955 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
956 remote serial I/O.
957
958* The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
959 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
960 and may include things like its command line arguments.
961
962* The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
963 is now available on all platforms.
964
965* Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
966 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
967 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
968 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
969 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
970 backward compatibility.
971
972* The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
973 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
974 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
975 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
976
977* GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
978 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
979 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
980 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
981 packets" below.
982
983* The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
984
985* GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
986
987* On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
988 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
989 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
990 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
991 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
992 See "New remote packets" below.
993
994* The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
995 available register groups, including target specific groups.
996
997* The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
998 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
999 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1000 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1001 are ignored.
1002
1003* Guile Scripting
1004
1005 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1006
1007* Python Scripting
1008
1009 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1010 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1011 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1012 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1013 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1014 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1015 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1016 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1017 "const" version of the value respectively.
1018
1019* New commands
1020
1021maint print symbol-cache
1022 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1023
1024maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1025 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1026
1027maint flush-symbol-cache
1028 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1029
1030record btrace bts
1031record bts
1032 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1033
1034compile print
1035 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1036
1037tui enable
1038tui disable
1039 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1040
1041show mpx bound
1042set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1043 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1044
1045record btrace pt
1046record pt
1047 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1048
1049maint info btrace
1050 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1051
1052maint btrace packet-history
1053 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1054
1055maint btrace clear-packet-history
1056 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1057
1058maint btrace clear
1059 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1060 anew by the next "record" command.
1061
1062* New options
1063
1064set debug dwarf-die
1065 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1066show debug dwarf-die
1067 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1068
1069set debug dwarf-read
1070 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1071show debug dwarf-read
1072 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1073
1074maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1075 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1076maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1077 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1078
1079maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1080 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1081maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1082 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1083
1084set debug dwarf-line
1085show debug dwarf-line
1086 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1087
1088set max-completions
1089show max-completions
1090 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1091 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1092 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1093 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1094
1095set history remove-duplicates
1096show history remove-duplicates
1097 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1098
1099maint set symbol-cache-size
1100maint show symbol-cache-size
1101 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1102
1103set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1104 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1105 BTS format.
1106 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1107 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1108
1109set debug linux-namespaces
1110show debug linux-namespaces
1111 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1112
1113set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1114 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1115 Intel Processor Trace format.
1116 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1117 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1118
1119maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1120 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1121 packet history.
1122
1123* The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1124 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1125
1126* Python/Guile scripting
1127
1128 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1129 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1130
1131* New remote packets
1132
1133qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1134 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1135
1136Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1137 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1138
1139Qbtrace:pt
1140 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1141 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1142 qSupported query.
1143
1144Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1145 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1146 Trace format.
1147
1148swbreak stop reason
1149 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1150 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1151 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1152 mode operation.
1153
1154hwbreak stop reason
1155 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1156 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1157
1158vFile:fstat:
1159 Return information about files on the remote system.
1160
1161qXfer:exec-file:read
1162 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1163 create a process running on the remote system.
1164
1165vFile:setfs:
1166 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1167 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1168 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1169 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1170
1171fork stop reason
1172 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1173
1174vfork stop reason
1175 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1176
1177vforkdone stop reason
1178 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1179 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1180
1181fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1182 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1183 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1184 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1185 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1186 whether these features are enabled.
1187
1188* Extended-remote fork events
1189
1190 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1191 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1192 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1193 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1194
1195* The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1196 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1197 the btrace record target.
1198 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1199
1200* GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1201 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1202
1203* GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1204 targets.
1205
1206* Removed command line options
1207
1208-xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1209
1210* Removed targets and native configurations
1211
1212HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1213Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1214
1215* New configure options
1216
1217--with-intel-pt
1218 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1219 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1220
1221--with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1222 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1223 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1224 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1225
1226*** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1227
1228* Python Scripting
1229
1230 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1231
1232*** Changes in GDB 7.9
1233
1234* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1235
1236* Python Scripting
1237
1238 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1239 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1240 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1241 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1242 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1243 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1244 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1245 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1246 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1247 selecting a new file to debug.
1248 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1249 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1250
1251 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1252 inferior.
1253
1254 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1255 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1256 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1257 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1258
1259* New Python-based convenience functions:
1260
1261 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1262 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1263 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1264 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1265
1266* GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1267 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1268 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1269 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1270 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1271 interface with this new feature are:
1272
1273 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1274 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1275
1276* New commands
1277
1278demangle [-l language] [--] name
1279 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1280 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1281 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1282 as "maint demangler-warning".
1283
1284queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1285 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1286
1287add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1288 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1289 scripts.
1290
1291maint print user-registers
1292 List all currently available "user" registers.
1293
1294compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1295 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1296 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1297
1298compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1299 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1300 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1301 provided.
1302
1303* On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1304 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1305 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1306 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1307 at resume time.
1308
1309* Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1310 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1311 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1312 switched threads meanwhile.
1313
1314* "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1315
1316 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1317 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1318 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1319 is now the default mode.
1320
1321* New options
1322
1323set debug symbol-lookup
1324show debug symbol-lookup
1325 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1326
1327* MI changes
1328
1329 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1330 inferiors that have exited.
1331
1332* New targets
1333
1334MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1335
1336* Removed targets
1337
1338Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1339
1340Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1341SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1342SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1343VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1344VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1345
1346* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1347 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1348 its alias "share", instead.
1349
1350*** Changes in GDB 7.8
1351
1352* New command line options
1353
1354-D data-directory
1355 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1356
1357* GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1358 as specified in ISO C99.
1359
1360* The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1361 with or without disassembly.
1362
1363* Guile scripting
1364
1365 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1366 available is determined at configure time.
1367 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1368 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1369
1370* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1371
1372guile [code]
1373gu [code]
1374 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1375
1376guile-repl
1377gr
1378 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1379
1380info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1381 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1382
1383* The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1384 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1385
1386* New options
1387
1388set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1389show print symbol-loading
1390 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1391 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1392 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1393 becomes less useful.
1394
1395set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1396show guile print-stack
1397 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1398
1399set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1400show auto-load guile-scripts
1401 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1402
1403maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1404maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1405 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1406 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1407 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1408 usage of this option.
1409
1410set auto-connect-native-target
1411
1412 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1413 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1414 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1415
1416set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1417show record btrace replay-memory-access
1418 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1419
1420maint set target-async (on|off)
1421maint show target-async
1422 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1423 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1424 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1425 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1426
1427set mi-async (on|off)
1428show mi-async
1429 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1430 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1431
1432* "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1433 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1434
1435* Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1436 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1437 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1438 "set target-async on" command.
1439
1440* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1441
1442 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1443 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1444 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1445 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1446 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1447
1448* The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1449 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1450 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1451
1452* The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1453 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1454 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1455 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1456 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1457 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1458 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1459
1460* The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1461 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1462
1463* The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1464 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1465 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1466
1467* The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1468 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1469 memory or registers.
1470
1471* The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1472
1473* The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1474 remote. It now works with all targets.
1475
1476* All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1477 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1478 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1479 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1480 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1481 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1482 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1483 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1484 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1485 target-stack".
1486
1487* The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1488 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1489 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1490
1491* GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1492
1493* Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1494 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1495 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1496
1497* New remote packets
1498
1499qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1500 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1501 branch trace incrementally.
1502
1503* Python Scripting
1504
1505 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1506 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1507 available.
1508 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1509 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1510 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1511 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1512 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
1513
1514* New targets
1515PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1516
1517* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1518 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1519 its alias "share", instead.
1520
1521* The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1522 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1523 instead.
1524
1525* MI changes
1526
1527 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1528 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1529 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1530 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1531 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1532 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1533 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1534 commands and CLI execution commands.
1535
1536*** Changes in GDB 7.7
1537
1538* Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1539 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1540 recording has been added.
1541
1542* GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1543
1544* GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1545 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1546
1547* New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1548 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1549 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1550 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1551 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1552 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1553 "void".
1554
1555* The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1556
1557* The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1558
1559* GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1560 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1561 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1562 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1563
1564 (gdb) p $rax
1565 $1 = <not saved>
1566
1567 (gdb) info registers rax
1568 rax <not saved>
1569
1570 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1571 "*value not available*".
1572
1573* New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1574 to binaries.
1575
1576* Python scripting
1577
1578 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1579 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1580 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1581 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1582 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1583 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1584
1585* New targets
1586
1587Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1588Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1589Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1590
1591* Removed native configurations
1592
1593Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1594been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1595
1596arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1597i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1598i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1599i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1600m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1601sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1602vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1603
1604* New commands:
1605catch rethrow
1606 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1607maint check-psymtabs
1608 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1609maint check-symtabs
1610 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1611maint expand-symtabs
1612 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1613
1614show configuration
1615 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1616
1617maint set|show per-command
1618maint set|show per-command space
1619maint set|show per-command time
1620maint set|show per-command symtab
1621 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1622
1623remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1624remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1625 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1626 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1627 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1628
1629info exceptions
1630info exceptions REGEXP
1631 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1632 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1633 are listed.
1634
1635* New options
1636
1637set debug symfile off|on
1638show debug symfile
1639 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1640 symbol tables within those files
1641
1642set print raw frame-arguments
1643show print raw frame-arguments
1644 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1645 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1646
1647set remote trace-status-packet
1648show remote trace-status-packet
1649 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1650
1651set debug nios2
1652show debug nios2
1653 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1654
1655set range-stepping
1656show range-stepping
1657 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1658
1659set startup-with-shell
1660show startup-with-shell
1661 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1662 directly.
1663
1664set code-cache
1665show code-cache
1666 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1667 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1668
1669* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1670 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1671 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1672 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1673 "set height 0".
1674
1675* The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1676 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1677 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1678
1679* New command-line options
1680--configuration
1681 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1682
1683* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1684 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1685
1686* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1687 GDB command gcore.
1688
1689* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1690
1691* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1692 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1693
1694* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1695 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1696
1697* The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1698 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1699 due to an uncaught signal.
1700
1701* MI changes
1702
1703 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1704 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1705 command, which should contain "language-option".
1706
1707 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1708 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1709
1710 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1711 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1712 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1713 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1714 "undefined-command-error-code".
1715
1716 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1717 Trace Format now.
1718
1719 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1720
1721 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1722 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1723 are displayed.
1724
1725 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1726 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1727
1728 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1729 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1730 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1731
1732 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1733 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1734 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1735 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1736 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1737 "exec-run-start-option".
1738
1739 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1740 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1741
1742 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1743 the new "info exceptions" command.
1744
1745* New system-wide configuration scripts
1746 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1747 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1748 ** ElinOS
1749 ** Wind River Linux
1750
1751* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1752 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1753 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1754 below.
1755
1756* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1757 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1758
1759* On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1760 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1761 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1762
1763* New remote packets
1764
1765vCont;r
1766
1767 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1768 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1769 involvemement at each single-step.
1770
1771qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1772 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1773 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1774 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1775 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1776 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1777 speedup.
1778
1779* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1780
1781 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1782 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1783
1784 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1785 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1786 trace state variables.
1787
1788 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1789 target.
1790
1791* New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1792 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1793
1794* GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1795
1796* The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1797 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1798 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1799 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1800
1801*** Changes in GDB 7.6
1802
1803* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1804 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1805 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1806 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1807
1808set|show record full insn-number-max
1809set|show record full stop-at-limit
1810set|show record full memory-query
1811
1812* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1813 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1814 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1815 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1816 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1817
1818record btrace
1819
1820 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1821 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1822
1823* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1824 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1825 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1826
1827record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1828 instruction granularity
1829
1830record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1831 function granularity
1832
1833* New native configurations
1834
1835ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1836FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1837x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1838Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1839
1840* New targets
1841
1842ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1843ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1844Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1845x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1846Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1847
1848* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1849 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1850 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1851 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1852 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1853 --data-directory command-line option.
1854
1855* New command line options:
1856
1857-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1858 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1859
1860* Removed command line options
1861
1862-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1863 Emacs.
1864
1865* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1866 type formatting.
1867
1868* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1869
1870* Python scripting
1871
1872 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1873
1874 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1875
1876 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1877
1878 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1879
1880 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1881 of architecture in the Python API.
1882
1883 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1884 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1885
1886* New Python-based convenience functions:
1887
1888 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1889 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1890 ** $_strlen(str)
1891 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1892
1893* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1894 given an argument.
1895
1896* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1897 default for GCC since November 2000.
1898
1899* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1900
1901* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1902 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1903
1904* New configure options
1905
1906--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1907 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1908 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1909 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1910 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1911 options allow the user to override that default.
1912--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1913 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1914 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1915
1916* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1917
1918catch signal
1919 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1920 conditions to be attached.
1921
1922maint info bfds
1923 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1924
1925python-interactive [command]
1926pi [command]
1927 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1928 and print the result of expressions.
1929
1930py [command]
1931 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1932
1933enable type-printer [name]...
1934disable type-printer [name]...
1935 Enable or disable type printers.
1936
1937* Removed commands
1938
1939 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1940 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1941 instead.
1942
1943* New options
1944
1945set print type methods (on|off)
1946show print type methods
1947 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1948 The default is to show them.
1949
1950set print type typedefs (on|off)
1951show print type typedefs
1952 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1953 The default is to show them.
1954
1955set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1956show filename-display
1957 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1958 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1959
1960set trace-buffer-size
1961show trace-buffer-size
1962 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1963
1964set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1965show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1966 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1967
1968set debug aarch64
1969show debug aarch64
1970 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1971 The default is off.
1972
1973set debug coff-pe-read
1974show debug coff-pe-read
1975 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1976 exported symbols.
1977
1978set debug mach-o
1979show debug mach-o
1980 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1981 processing.
1982
1983set debug notification
1984show debug notification
1985 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1986
1987* MI changes
1988
1989 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1990 "=cmd-param-changed".
1991 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1992 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1993 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1994 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1995 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1996 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1997 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1998 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1999 "=memory-changed".
2000 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2001 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2002 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2003 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2004 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2005 library load/unload events.
2006 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2007 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2008 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2009 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2010 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2011 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2012 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2013 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2014
2015* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2016 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2017 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2018 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2019
2020* New remote packets
2021
2022QTBuffer:size
2023 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2024 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2025
2026Qbtrace:bts
2027 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2028 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2029 qSupported query.
2030
2031Qbtrace:off
2032 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2033 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2034
2035qXfer:btrace:read
2036 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2037 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2038
2039*** Changes in GDB 7.5
2040
2041* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2042 for more x32 ABI info.
2043
2044* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2045
2046* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2047
2048* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2049 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2050 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2051 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2052 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2053 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2054 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2055 "info os msg" lists message queues
2056 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2057
2058* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2059 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2060 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2061 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2062 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2063 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2064
2065* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2066 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2067 record/replay support.
2068
2069* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2070
2071* Python scripting
2072
2073 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2074 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2075
2076 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2077
2078 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2079 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2080
2081 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2082
2083 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2084 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2085
2086 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2087 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2088 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2089 symbol's value.
2090
2091 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2092 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2093
2094 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2095 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2096 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2097
2098 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2099 object associated with a PC value.
2100
2101 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2102 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2103
2104* Go language support.
2105 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2106 language.
2107
2108* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2109 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2110
2111* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2112 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2113
2114* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2115 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2116 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2117 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2118 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2119 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2120
2121* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2122 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2123 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2124 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2125
2126* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2127 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2128
2129* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2130 since December 2007.
2131
2132* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2133 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2134 command does. For instance:
2135
2136 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2137
2138 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2139 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2140 created, using the "condition" command.
2141
2142* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2143 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2144
2145* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2146
2147* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2148 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2149 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2150 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2151 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2152 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2153 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2154 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2155
2156 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2157 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2158 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2159 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2160 the .gdb_index section.
2161
2162* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2163
2164* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2165 target.
2166
2167* MI changes
2168
2169 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2170
2171 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2172
2173* New commands
2174
2175 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2176 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2177 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2178
2179 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2180 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2181
2182 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2183 several hits.
2184
2185 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2186 C++ and Java objects.
2187
2188 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2189 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2190 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2191 configured with '--with-python'.
2192
2193 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2194 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2195 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2196 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2197 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2198 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2199 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2200
2201 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2202 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2203 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2204 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2205
2206 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2207 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2208 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2209 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2210
2211 ** "set print symbol"
2212 "show print symbol"
2213 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2214 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2215 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2216
2217* Deprecated commands
2218
2219 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2220 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2221
2222* New targets
2223
2224Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2225HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2226
2227* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2228 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2229 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2230 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2231 evaluates to true.
2232
2233* New options
2234
2235set mips compression
2236show mips compression
2237 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2238 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2239 mips16
2240 micromips
2241 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2242
2243set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2244show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2245 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2246 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2247 available mode.
2248 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2249 target.
2250
2251set auto-load off
2252 Disable auto-loading globally.
2253
2254show auto-load
2255 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2256
2257set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2258show auto-load gdb-scripts
2259 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2260
2261set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2262show auto-load python-scripts
2263 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2264
2265set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2266show auto-load local-gdbinit
2267 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2268
2269set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2270show auto-load libthread-db
2271 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2272
2273set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2274show auto-load scripts-directory
2275 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2276 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2277 of the directories listed by this option.
2278 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2279
2280set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2281show auto-load safe-path
2282 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2283 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2284
2285set debug auto-load on|off
2286show debug auto-load
2287 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2288
2289set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2290show dprintf-style
2291 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2292 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2293 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2294 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2295
2296set dprintf-function <expr>
2297show dprintf-function
2298set dprintf-channel <expr>
2299show dprintf-channel
2300 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2301 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2302
2303set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2304show disconnected-dprintf
2305 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2306 after GDB disconnects.
2307
2308* New configure options
2309
2310--with-auto-load-dir
2311 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2312 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2313 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2314 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2315 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2316
2317--with-auto-load-safe-path
2318 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2319 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2320
2321--without-auto-load-safe-path
2322 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2323 security feature.
2324
2325* New remote packets
2326
2327z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2328
2329 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2330 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2331 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2332 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2333
2334QProgramSignals:
2335
2336 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2337 program without GDB involvement.
2338
2339* New command line options
2340
2341--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2342 before loading inferior.
2343--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2344 execute it before loading inferior.
2345
2346*** Changes in GDB 7.4
2347
2348* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2349 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2350 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2351 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2352 inferior changes.
2353
2354* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2355 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2356
2357* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2358 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2359 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2360 target hardware watchpoint.
2361
2362 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2363 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2364 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2365 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2366
2367* Python scripting
2368
2369 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2370 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2371 existing one.
2372
2373 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2374 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2375 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2376 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2377 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2378 the stack trace.
2379
2380 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2381 Python API.
2382
2383 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2384 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2385 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2386 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2387 corresponding value.
2388
2389 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2390 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2391 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2392 on GDB start-up.
2393
2394 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2395 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2396 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2397 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2398
2399 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2400
2401 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2402 "gdb.breakpoints".
2403
2404 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2405 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2406 available in the CLI.
2407
2408 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2409 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2410 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2411 "some_type.items()".
2412
2413 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2414 new object file.
2415
2416 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2417 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2418 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2419 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2420 any anonymous fields.
2421
2422* MI changes
2423
2424 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2425 "solib-event".
2426
2427 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2428 "=breakpoint-modified".
2429
2430 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2431
2432* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2433 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2434 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2435 lives.
2436
2437 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2438 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2439 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2440 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2441 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2442
2443 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2444 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2445
2446* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2447 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2448 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2449 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2450 use this option to specify where to find it.
2451
2452* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2453 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2454 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2455 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2456 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2457 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2458 section in the user manual for more details.
2459
2460* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2461 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2462 become available after that.
2463
2464* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2465
2466* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2467 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2468 gcc version 4.7.
2469
2470* New commands
2471
2472!SHELL COMMAND
2473 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2474 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2475
2476* Changed commands
2477
2478watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2479 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2480 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2481
2482info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2483 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2484 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2485
2486info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2487 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2488 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2489 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2490 name starts with a hyphen.
2491
2492collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2493 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2494 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2495 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2496 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2497 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2498 number of bytes that will be collected.
2499
2500tstart [NOTES]
2501 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2502 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2503 setting the variable trace-notes.
2504
2505tstop [NOTES]
2506 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2507 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2508 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2509 trace-stop-notes.
2510
2511* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2512 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2513 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2514 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2515 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2516 is running.
2517
2518* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2519 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2520 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2521
2522* New options
2523
2524set debug dwarf2-read
2525show debug dwarf2-read
2526 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2527 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2528
2529set debug symtab-create
2530show debug symtab-create
2531 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2532 creation. The default is off.
2533
2534set extended-prompt
2535show extended-prompt
2536 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2537 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2538 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2539 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2540 prompt is displayed.
2541
2542set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2543show print entry-values
2544 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2545 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2546 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2547
2548set debug entry-values
2549show debug entry-values
2550 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2551 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2552
2553set basenames-may-differ
2554show basenames-may-differ
2555 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2556 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2557 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2558 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2559 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2560 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2561 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2562 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2563
2564set trace-user
2565show trace-user
2566set trace-notes
2567show trace-notes
2568 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2569 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2570 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2571 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2572
2573set trace-stop-notes
2574show trace-stop-notes
2575 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2576 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2577 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2578 started by someone else.
2579
2580* New remote packets
2581
2582QTEnable
2583
2584 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2585
2586QTDisable
2587
2588 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2589
2590QTNotes
2591
2592 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2593
2594qTP
2595
2596 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2597
2598qTMinFTPILen
2599
2600 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2601 be placed.
2602
2603* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2604 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2605
2606* New targets
2607
2608Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2609
2610* New Simulators
2611
2612Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2613
2614*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2615
2616* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2617
2618*** Changes in GDB 7.3
2619
2620* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2621 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2622 matches the given regular expression.
2623
2624* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2625
2626* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2627 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2628
2629* New command line options
2630
2631-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2632 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2633
2634* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2635 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2636
2637* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2638 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2639 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2640
2641* GDB now understands thread names.
2642
2643 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2644 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2645
2646 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2647 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2648
2649* OpenCL C
2650 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2651 has been integrated into GDB.
2652
2653* Python scripting
2654
2655 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2656 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2657 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2658
2659 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2660 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2661 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2662 and allows for more dynamic content.
2663
2664 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2665 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2666 have an is_valid method.
2667
2668 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2669 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2670 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2671
2672 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2673
2674 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2675 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2676 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2677 that function like so:
2678
2679 result = some_value (10,20)
2680
2681 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2682 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2683 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2684
2685 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2686 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2687 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2688 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2689 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2690
2691 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2692 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2693
2694 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2695
2696 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2697 selected thread.
2698
2699 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2700 holds the thread's name.
2701
2702 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2703 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2704 occurring in the process being debugged.
2705 The following events are currently supported:
2706 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2707 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2708 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2709
2710* C++ Improvements:
2711
2712 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2713 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2714
2715 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2716
2717 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2718 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2719 was added to GCC 4.5.
2720
2721 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2722 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2723 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2724 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2725 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2726 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2727
2728* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2729 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2730 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2731 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2732 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2733
2734* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2735 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2736 execution to a label.
2737
2738* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2739 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2740 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2741 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2742
2743* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2744 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2745 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2746 of scope.
2747
2748* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2749
2750 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2751 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2752 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2753 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2754 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2755 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2756
2757 (gdb) info threads
2758 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2759
2760 While now you see this:
2761
2762 (gdb) info threads
2763 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2764
2765 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2766 dumps.
2767
2768 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2769 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2770 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2771 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2772
2773* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2774 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2775 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2776 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2777 section in the user manual for more details.
2778
2779* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2780
2781 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2782 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2783
2784 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2785
2786* New native configurations
2787
2788ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2789
2790* New targets:
2791
2792Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2793
2794* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2795 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2796 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2797 in the GDB user manual.
2798
2799* Guile support was removed.
2800
2801* New features in the GNU simulator
2802
2803 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2804
2805 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2806
2807*** Changes in GDB 7.2
2808
2809* Shared library support for remote targets by default
2810
2811 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2812 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2813 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2814 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2815 was always disabled for such configurations.
2816
2817* C++ Improvements:
2818
2819 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2820
2821 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2822 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2823 For example:
2824 namespace A
2825 {
2826 class B { };
2827 void foo (B) { }
2828 }
2829 ...
2830 A::B b
2831 foo(b)
2832 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2833 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2834 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2835
2836 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2837
2838 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2839 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2840 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2841 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2842 entry.
2843 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2844 mentioned flavors of operators.
2845
2846 ** static const class members
2847
2848 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2849 class definition has been fixed.
2850
2851* Windows Thread Information Block access.
2852
2853 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2854 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2855 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2856 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2857 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2858 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2859
2860* Static tracepoints
2861
2862 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2863 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2864 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2865 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2866 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2867 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2868 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2869 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2870 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2871 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2872 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2873 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2874 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2875 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2876 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2877 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2878 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2879 the "New remote packets" section below.
2880
2881* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2882
2883 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2884 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2885 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2886 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2887
2888* Observer mode
2889
2890 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2891 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2892 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2893 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2894 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2895 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2896 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2897
2898* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2899 current thread.
2900
2901* New remote packets
2902
2903qGetTIBAddr
2904
2905 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2906
2907qRelocInsn
2908
2909 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2910 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2911 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2912 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2913 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2914 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2915
2916qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2917
2918 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2919
2920qTSTMat
2921
2922 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2923 program.
2924
2925qXfer:statictrace:read
2926
2927 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2928 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2929 to gdb's qSupported query.
2930
2931QAllow
2932
2933 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2934
2935QTDPsrc
2936
2937 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2938 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2939
2940* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2941 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2942 a directory.
2943
2944* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2945
2946 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2947 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2948 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2949 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2950
2951 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2952 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2953 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2954 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2955 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2956 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2957 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2958
2959 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2960 for static tracepoints support.
2961
2962 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2963
2964* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2965 it understands register description.
2966
2967* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2968
2969* X86 general purpose registers
2970
2971 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2972 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2973 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2974 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2975 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2976
2977* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2978 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2979 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2980 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2981 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2982 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2983
2984* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2985 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2986 in the specified file.
2987
2988* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2989 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2990 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2991 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2992 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2993 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2994 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2995 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2996 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2997 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2998
2999* New commands
3000
3001eval template, expressions...
3002 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3003 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3004
3005set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3006show target-file-system-kind
3007 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3008 names.
3009
3010save breakpoints <filename>
3011 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3012 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3013 definitions, use the `source' command.
3014
3015`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3016is now deprecated.
3017
3018info static-tracepoint-markers
3019 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3020
3021strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3022 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3023 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3024
3025set observer on|off
3026show observer
3027 Enable and disable observer mode.
3028
3029set may-write-registers on|off
3030set may-write-memory on|off
3031set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3032set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3033set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3034set may-interrupt on|off
3035 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3036 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3037 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3038 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3039 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3040 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3041 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3042
3043set record memory-query on|off
3044show record memory-query
3045 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3046 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3047
3048* Changed commands
3049
3050disassemble
3051 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3052
3053* Python scripting
3054
3055** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3056 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3057 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3058 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3059 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3060
3061** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3062 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3063 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3064 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3065
3066** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3067 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3068
3069** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3070
3071** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3072
3073** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3074
3075** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3076 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3077 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3078
3079* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3080there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3081tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3082regular breakpoints.
3083
3084* New targets
3085
3086ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3087
3088* D language support.
3089 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3090 language.
3091
3092* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3093 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3094 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3095 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3096 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3097
3098* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3099 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3100 conditions of the form:
3101
3102 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3103
3104 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3105 interface mentioned above.
3106
3107*** Changes in GDB 7.1
3108
3109* C++ Improvements
3110
3111 ** Namespace Support
3112
3113 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3114 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3115 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3116 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3117 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3118
3119 ** Bug Fixes
3120
3121 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3122 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3123 qualified name.
3124
3125 ** Cast Operators
3126
3127 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3128 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3129
3130* New targets
3131
3132Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3133Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3134
3135* New Simulators
3136
3137Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3138Renesas RX rx
3139
3140* Multi-program debugging.
3141
3142 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3143 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3144 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3145 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3146 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3147 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3148 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3149 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3150
3151* New tracing features
3152
3153 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3154
3155 ** Trace state variables
3156
3157 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3158 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3159 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3160 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3161 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3162 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3163 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3164 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3165 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3166 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3167
3168 ** Fast tracepoints
3169
3170 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3171 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3172 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3173 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3174 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3175 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3176 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3177 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3178 the regular trace command.
3179
3180 ** Disconnected tracing
3181
3182 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3183 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3184 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3185 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3186 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3187
3188 ** Trace files
3189
3190 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3191 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3192 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3193 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3194 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3195 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3196 <name>".
3197
3198 ** Circular trace buffer
3199
3200 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3201 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3202 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3203 not be available for all target agents.
3204
3205* Changed commands
3206
3207disassemble
3208 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3209 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3210
3211info variables
3212 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3213 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3214
3215source
3216 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3217 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3218 support.
3219
3220 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3221 "set script-extension" (see below).
3222
3223* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3224
3225record save [<FILENAME>]
3226 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3227 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3228
3229record restore <FILENAME>
3230 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3231 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3232
3233add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3234 Add a new inferior.
3235
3236clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3237 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3238 inferior has loaded.
3239
3240remove-inferior ID
3241 Remove an inferior.
3242
3243maint info program-spaces
3244 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3245
3246set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3247show remote interrupt-sequence
3248 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3249 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3250 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3251 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3252 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3253
3254set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3255show remote interrupt-on-connect
3256 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3257 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3258 Linux kernel.
3259
3260set remotebreak [on | off]
3261show remotebreak
3262Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3263
3264tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3265 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3266
3267info tvariables
3268 List trace state variables and their values.
3269
3270delete tvariable $NAME ...
3271 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3272
3273teval EXPR, ...
3274 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3275 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3276
3277ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3278 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3279
3280* New expression syntax
3281
3282 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3283 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3284
3285* New options
3286
3287set follow-exec-mode new|same
3288show follow-exec-mode
3289 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3290 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3291 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3292
3293set default-collect EXPR, ...
3294show default-collect
3295 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3296 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3297 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3298
3299set disconnected-tracing
3300show disconnected-tracing
3301 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3302 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3303 upon disconnection.
3304
3305set circular-trace-buffer
3306show circular-trace-buffer
3307 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3308 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3309 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3310 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3311
3312set script-extension off|soft|strict
3313show script-extension
3314 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3315 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3316 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3317 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3318 evaluation failed.
3319 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3320
3321set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3322show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3323 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3324 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3325 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3326 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3327 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3328 is on.
3329
3330* Python API Improvements
3331
3332 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3333 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3334 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3335
3336 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3337 `is_base_class' attribute.
3338
3339 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3340
3341 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3342 evaluate an expression.
3343
3344* New remote packets
3345
3346QTDV
3347 Define a trace state variable.
3348
3349qTV
3350 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3351
3352QTDisconnected
3353 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3354
3355QTBuffer:circular
3356 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3357
3358qTfP, qTsP
3359 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3360
3361* Bug fixes
3362
3363Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3364
3365Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3366much more reliable. In particular:
3367 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3368 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3369 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3370 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3371 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3372 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3373 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3374 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3375 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3376 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3377 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3378 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3379 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3380 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3381 non-threaded programs.
3382
3383PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3384This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3385libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3386executable program.
3387
3388*** Changes in GDB 7.0
3389
3390* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3391dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3392them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3393for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3394"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3395
3396* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3397breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3398or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3399the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3400for tracepoint actions.
3401
3402* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3403raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3404modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
3405
3406* Process record and replay
3407
3408 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3409 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3410 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3411 execute commands.
3412
3413* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3414step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3415set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3416reverse execution.
3417
3418* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3419feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
34202.6.28 or later.
3421
3422* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3423target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3424char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3425literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3426U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3427`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3428system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3429the installation instructions for more information.
3430
3431* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3432remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3433with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3434the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3435
3436* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3437and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3438
3439* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3440now complete on file names.
3441
3442* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3443completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3444For instance, consider:
3445
3446 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3447 # struct example variable;
3448 (gdb) p variable.
3449
3450If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3451completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3452
3453* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3454the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3455
3456* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3457operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3458macros.
3459
3460* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3461the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3462implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3463
3464* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3465registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3466can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3467and simulator targets may also provide them.
3468
3469* New remote packets
3470
3471qSearch:memory:
3472 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3473
3474QStartNoAckMode
3475 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3476 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3477 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3478
3479vKill
3480 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3481 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3482
3483qXfer:osdata:read
3484 Obtains additional operating system information
3485
3486qXfer:siginfo:read
3487qXfer:siginfo:write
3488 Read or write additional signal information.
3489
3490* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3491
3492 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3493 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3494 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3495
3496* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3497DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3498
3499* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3500and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3501`set/show sh calling-convention'.
3502
3503* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3504with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3505
3506* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3507
3508* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3509
3510* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3511which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3512
3513* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
3514list of section offsets.
3515
3516* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3517conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3518have also been fixed.
3519
3520* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3521From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3522are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3523
3524* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3525example, given:
3526
3527 template<typename T> class C { };
3528 C<char const *> c;
3529
3530GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3531
3532 ptype C<char const *>
3533 ptype C<char const*>
3534 ptype C<const char *>
3535 ptype C<const char*>
3536
3537* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3538
3539 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3540 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3541
3542 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3543 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3544 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3545
3546 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3547 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3548
3549 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3550 gdbserver.
3551
3552 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3553 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3554
3555 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3556 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3557 as appropriate.
3558
3559* Python scripting
3560
3561 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3562 available is determined at configure time.
3563
3564 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3565
3566* Ada tasking support
3567
3568 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3569 been introduced:
3570
3571 info tasks
3572 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3573 info task N
3574 Print detailed information about task number N.
3575 task
3576 Print the task number of the current task.
3577 task N
3578 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3579
3580* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3581add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3582
3583* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3584
3585 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3586 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3587 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3588 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3589 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3590 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3591 below.
3592
3593* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3594"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3595information.
3596
3597* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3598to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3599architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3600See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3601more information.
3602
3603* Multi-architecture debugging.
3604
3605 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3606 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3607 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3608 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3609 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3610
3611* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3612use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3613Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3614powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3615--enable-targets configure option.
3616
3617* Non-stop mode debugging.
3618
3619 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3620 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3621 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3622 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3623 section in the user manual for more information.
3624
3625 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3626 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3627 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3628 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3629 extensions on linux targets.
3630
3631* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3632
3633catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3634 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3635 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3636 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3637 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3638 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3639 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3640 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3641 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3642
3643find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3644 val1 [, val2, ...]
3645 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3646
3647maint set python print-stack
3648maint show python print-stack
3649 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3650
3651python [CODE]
3652 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3653
3654macro define
3655macro list
3656macro undef
3657 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3658 interactively.
3659
3660info os processes
3661 Show operating system information about processes.
3662
3663info inferiors
3664 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3665
3666inferior NUM
3667 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3668
3669detach inferior NUM
3670 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3671
3672kill inferior NUM
3673 Kill inferior number NUM.
3674
3675* New options
3676
3677set spu stop-on-load
3678show spu stop-on-load
3679 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3680
3681set spu auto-flush-cache
3682show spu auto-flush-cache
3683 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3684 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3685
3686set sh calling-convention
3687show sh calling-convention
3688 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3689
3690set debug timestamp
3691show debug timestamp
3692 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3693
3694set disassemble-next-line
3695show disassemble-next-line
3696 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3697 the debuggee stops.
3698
3699set remote noack-packet
3700show remote noack-packet
3701 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3702 under "New remote packets."
3703
3704set remote query-attached-packet
3705show remote query-attached-packet
3706 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3707
3708set remote read-siginfo-object
3709show remote read-siginfo-object
3710 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3711 packet.
3712
3713set remote write-siginfo-object
3714show remote write-siginfo-object
3715 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3716 packet.
3717
3718set remote reverse-continue
3719show remote reverse-continue
3720 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3721
3722set remote reverse-step
3723show remote reverse-step
3724 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3725
3726set displaced-stepping
3727show displaced-stepping
3728 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3729 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3730 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3731
3732set debug displaced
3733show debug displaced
3734 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3735
3736maint set internal-error
3737maint show internal-error
3738 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3739
3740maint set internal-warning
3741maint show internal-warning
3742 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3743
3744set exec-wrapper
3745show exec-wrapper
3746unset exec-wrapper
3747 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3748
3749set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3750show multiple-symbols
3751 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3752 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3753 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3754
3755set breakpoint always-inserted
3756show breakpoint always-inserted
3757 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3758 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3759 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3760
3761set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3762show arm fallback-mode
3763set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3764show arm force-mode
3765 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3766 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3767 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3768 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3769
3770set disable-randomization
3771show disable-randomization
3772 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3773 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3774 multiple debugging sessions.
3775
3776set non-stop
3777show non-stop
3778 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3779 a breakpoint.
3780
3781set target-async
3782show target-async
3783 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3784 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3785 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3786 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3787
3788set target-wide-charset
3789show target-wide-charset
3790 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3791 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3792
3793set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3794show tcp auto-retry
3795set tcp connect-timeout
3796show tcp connect-timeout
3797 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3798 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3799 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3800
3801set libthread-db-search-path
3802show libthread-db-search-path
3803 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3804 libthread_db.
3805
3806set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3807show schedule-multiple
3808 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3809 the current process.
3810
3811set stack-cache
3812show stack-cache
3813 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3814 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3815 affecting correctness.
3816
3817set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3818show interactive-mode
3819 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3820 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3821 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3822 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3823 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3824
3825* Removed commands
3826
3827info forks
3828 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3829 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3830 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3831 command.
3832
3833fork NUM
3834 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3835 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3836 alias for the `fork' command.
3837
3838process PID
3839 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3840 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3841 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3842
3843delete fork NUM
3844 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3845 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3846 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3847 fork' command.
3848
3849detach fork NUM
3850 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3851 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3852 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3853 fork' command.
3854
3855* New native configurations
3856
3857x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3858
3859x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3860
3861* New targets
3862
3863Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3864x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3865x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3866S+core 3 score-*-*
3867
3868* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3869 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3870
3871* Removed commands
3872
3873catch load
3874catch unload
3875 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3876
3877*** Changes in GDB 6.8
3878
3879* New native configurations
3880
3881NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3882Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3883
3884* New targets
3885
3886NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3887Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3888
3889* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3890
3891 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3892 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3893 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3894 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3895
3896* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3897(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3898
3899* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3900is resolved.
3901
3902* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3903including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3904and in inlined functions.
3905
3906* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3907accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3908more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3909
3910* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3911
3912* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3913registers on PowerPC targets.
3914
3915* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3916targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3917
3918* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3919commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3920
3921* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3922extended-remote mode.
3923
3924* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3925The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3926error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3927The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3928
3929* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3930building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3931target architectures.
3932
3933* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3934Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3935now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3936stored in two consecutive float registers.
3937
3938* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3939breakpoints now.
3940
3941* Improved support for debugging Ada
3942Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3943include:
3944 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3945 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3946 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3947 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3948 of an assignment
3949 - Improved command completion in Ada
3950 - Several bug fixes
3951
3952* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3953process.
3954
3955* New commands
3956
3957set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3958show print frame-arguments
3959 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3960 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3961
3962remote put
3963remote get
3964remote delete
3965 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3966
3967* New MI commands
3968
3969-target-file-put
3970-target-file-get
3971-target-file-delete
3972 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3973
3974* New remote packets
3975
3976vFile:open:
3977vFile:close:
3978vFile:pread:
3979vFile:pwrite:
3980vFile:unlink:
3981 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3982
3983vAttach
3984 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3985 mode.
3986
3987vRun
3988 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3989
3990*** Changes in GDB 6.7
3991
3992* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3993bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3994Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3995
3996* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3997symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3998-Bsymbolic linker option.
3999
4000* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4001recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4002is not supported.
4003
4004* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4005frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4006
4007* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
400832-bit or 64-bit register values.
4009
4010* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4011
4012* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4013target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4014a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4015
4016* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4017automatically displayed as character or string data.
4018
4019* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4020arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4021as strings.
4022
4023* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4024for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4025only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4026
4027* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4028iWMMXt coprocessor.
4029
4030* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4031ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4032has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4033
4034* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4035
4036* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4037
4038* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4039layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4040segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4041
4042* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4043immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4044
4045* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4046"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4047packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4048where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4049Windows and SymbianOS).
4050
4051* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4052(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4053
4054* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4055according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4056
4057* New commands
4058
4059set remoteflow
4060show remoteflow
4061 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4062 when debugging using remote targets.
4063
4064set mem inaccessible-by-default
4065show mem inaccessible-by-default
4066 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4067 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4068 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4069 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4070 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4071
4072set breakpoint auto-hw
4073show breakpoint auto-hw
4074 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4075 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4076 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4077 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4078 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4079 including "next" and "finish".
4080
4081catch exception
4082catch exception unhandled
4083 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4084
4085catch assert
4086 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4087
4088set sysroot
4089show sysroot
4090 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4091 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4092 an alias to "set sysroot".
4093
4094info spu
4095 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4096 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4097 architecture.
4098
4099* New native configurations
4100
4101OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4102
4103set tdesc filename
4104unset tdesc filename
4105show tdesc filename
4106 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4107 not query the target for its built-in description.
4108
4109* New targets
4110
4111OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4112MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4113Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4114
4115* New remote packets
4116
4117QPassSignals:
4118 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4119 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4120
4121qXfer:features:read:
4122 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4123 features.
4124
4125qXfer:spu:read:
4126qXfer:spu:write:
4127 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4128 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4129
4130qXfer:libraries:read:
4131 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4132 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4133 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4134 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4135
4136* Removed targets
4137
4138Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4139
4140alpha*-*-osf1*
4141alpha*-*-osf2*
4142d10v-*-*
4143hppa*-*-hiux*
4144i[34567]86-ncr-*
4145i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4146i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4147i[34567]86-*-netware*
4148i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4149i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4150i[34567]86-*-sco*
4151i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4152i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4153i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4154i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4155i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4156i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4157i[34567]86-*-isc*
4158m68*-cisco*-*
4159m68*-tandem-*
4160mips*-*-pe
4161rs6000-*-lynxos*
4162sh*-*-pe
4163
4164* Other removed features
4165
4166target abug
4167target cpu32bug
4168target est
4169target rom68k
4170
4171 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4172
4173target hms
4174target e7000
4175target sh3
4176target sh3e
4177
4178 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4179 H8/300.
4180
4181target ocd
4182
4183 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4184 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4185 interfaces.
4186
4187DWARF 1 support
4188
4189 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4190 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4191
4192Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4193
4194 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4195 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4196 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4197 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4198
4199MIPS ".pdr" sections
4200
4201 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4202 in debugging information.
4203
4204Scheme support
4205
4206 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4207 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4208
4209set mips stack-arg-size
4210set mips saved-gpreg-size
4211
4212 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4213
4214*** Changes in GDB 6.6
4215
4216* New targets
4217
4218Xtensa xtensa-elf
4219Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4220
4221* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4222(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4223running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4224
4225* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4226Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4227supported.
4228
4229* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4230broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4231
4232* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4233stub provides the required support.
4234
4235* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4236longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4237
4238* New commands
4239
4240set substitute-path
4241unset substitute-path
4242show substitute-path
4243 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4244 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4245 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4246 between compilation and debugging.
4247
4248set trace-commands
4249show trace-commands
4250 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4251 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4252 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4253
4254* REMOVED features
4255
4256The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4257
4258Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4259an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4260
4261The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4262
4263* New remote packets
4264
4265qSupported:
4266 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4267 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4268 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4269 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4270 target.
4271
4272qXfer:auxv:read:
4273 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4274 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4275
4276qXfer:memory-map:read:
4277 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4278 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4279
4280vFlashErase:
4281vFlashWrite:
4282vFlashDone:
4283 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4284
4285* Removed remote packets
4286
4287qPart:auxv:read:
4288 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4289 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4290
4291*** Changes in GDB 6.5
4292
4293* New targets
4294
4295Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4296
4297Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4298
4299* New commands
4300
4301init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4302 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4303
4304The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4305
4306checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4307
4308restart <n> Return the program state to a
4309 previously saved state.
4310
4311info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4312
4313delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4314
4315set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4316 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4317
4318info forks List forks of the user program that
4319 are available to be debugged.
4320
4321fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4322 forks of the user program that are
4323 available to be debugged.
4324
4325delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4326 that are available to be debugged (and
4327 kill the forked process).
4328
4329detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4330 that are available to be debugged (and
4331 allow the process to continue).
4332
4333* New architecture
4334
4335Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4336
4337* Improved Windows host support
4338
4339GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4340native console support, and remote communications using either
4341network sockets or serial ports.
4342
4343* Improved Modula-2 language support
4344
4345GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4346basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4347pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4348printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4349written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4350GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4351
4352* REMOVED features
4353
4354The ARM rdi-share module.
4355
4356The Netware NLM debug server.
4357
4358*** Changes in GDB 6.4
4359
4360* New native configurations
4361
4362OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4363OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4364
4365* New targets
4366
4367Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4368
4369* New command line options
4370
4371--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4372--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4373 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4374--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4375 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4376 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4377 with the --command (-x) option.
4378
4379* Deprecated commands removed
4380
4381The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4382removed:
4383
4384 Command Replacement
4385 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4386 othernames set arm disassembler
4387 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4388 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4389 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4390 regs info registers
4391
4392* New BSD user-level threads support
4393
4394It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4395library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4396configurations are:
4397
4398FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4399FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4400OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4401
4402Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4403are not yet supported.
4404
4405* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4406(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4407
4408* REMOVED configurations and files
4409
4410VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4411Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4412National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4413
4414* New "set print array-indexes" command
4415
4416After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4417when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4418behavior.
4419
4420* VAX floating point support
4421
4422GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4423
4424* User-defined command support
4425
4426In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4427to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4428section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4429
4430*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4431
4432* New command line option
4433
4434GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4435debugging.
4436
4437* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4438
4439GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4440information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4441by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4442proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4443to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4444
4445* Internationalization
4446
4447When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4448internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4449continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4450
4451* Ada
4452
4453Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4454implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4455into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4456
4457* New native configurations
4458
4459GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4460
4461* Remote 'p' packet
4462
4463GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4464packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4465
4466* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4467
4468GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4469The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4470features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4471i386 application).
4472
4473GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4474compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4475continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4476configurations:
4477
4478hppa-*-hpux
4479ia64-*-aix
4480mips-*-irix*
4481*-*-lynx
4482mips-*-linux-gnu
4483sds protocol
4484xdr protocol
4485powerpc bdm protocol
4486
4487Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4488made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4489
4490* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4491
4492Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4493been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4494configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4495permanently REMOVED.
4496
4497h8300-*-*
4498mcore-*-*
4499mn10300-*-*
4500ns32k-*-*
4501sh64-*-*
4502v850-*-*
4503
4504*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4505
4506* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4507
4508When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4509heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4510been fixed.
4511
4512* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4513
4514When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4515fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4516IRIX long double values).
4517
4518* VAX and "next"
4519
4520A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4521command. This problem has been fixed.
4522
4523*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4524
4525* Fix for ``many threads''
4526
4527On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4528rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4529error message:
4530
4531 ptrace: No such process.
4532 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4533
4534This problem has been fixed.
4535
4536* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4537
4538Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4539GDB to dump core).
4540
4541* New ``start'' command.
4542
4543This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4544
4545* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4546
4547Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4548live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4549platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4550
4551FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4552FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4553NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4554NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4555NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4556OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4557OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4558OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4559OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4560
4561* Signal trampoline code overhauled
4562
4563Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4564These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4565of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4566call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4567signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4568
4569Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4570features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4571include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4572
4573* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4574
4575* New native configurations
4576
4577GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4578OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4579OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4580OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4581OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4582NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4583OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4584
4585* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4586
4587GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4588The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4589including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4590migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4591compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4592work, was also included.
4593
4594GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4595module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4596
4597h8300-*-*
4598mcore-*-*
4599mn10300-*-*
4600ns32k-*-*
4601sh64-*-*
4602v850-*-*
4603xstormy16-*-*
4604
4605Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4606made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4607
4608* REMOVED configurations and files
4609
4610Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4611Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4612Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4613Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4614Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4615AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4616Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4617decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4618riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4619sonymips mips-sony-*
4620sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4621
4622*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4623
4624* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4625
4626The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4627GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4628command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4629program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4630with GDB".
4631
4632* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4633
4634Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4635libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4636cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4637GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4638shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4639the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4640are created.
4641
4642Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4643
4644* Fixed ISO-C build problems
4645
4646The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4647non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4648compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4649
4650* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4651
4652Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4653wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4654
4655* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4656
4657The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4658permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4659systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4660
4661* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4662
4663Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4664has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4665
4666* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4667
4668GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4669its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4670panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4671
4672* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4673
4674When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4675by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4676not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4677
4678*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4679
4680* Removed --with-mmalloc
4681
4682Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4683conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4684
4685* Changes in AMD64 configurations
4686
4687The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4688the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4689and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4690you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4691
4692* Revised SPARC target
4693
4694The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4695FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4696support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4697from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4698(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4699
4700* New C++ demangler
4701
4702GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4703names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4704with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4705programs.
4706
4707* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4708
4709GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4710arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4711encountered these.
4712
4713* C++ nested types and namespaces
4714
4715GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4716improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4717is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4718Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4719namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4720"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4721frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4722if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4723GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4724
4725* New native configurations
4726
4727NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4728OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4729OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4730OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4731OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4732
4733* New debugging protocols
4734
4735M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4736
4737* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4738
4739The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4740and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4741tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4742
4743* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4744
4745Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4746been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4747configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4748permanently REMOVED.
4749
4750Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4751Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4752Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4753Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4754Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4755AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4756Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4757decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4758riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4759sonymips mips-sony-*
4760sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4761
4762* REMOVED configurations and files
4763
4764SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4765SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4766Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4767Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4768H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4769HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4770HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4771HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4772PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4773386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4774Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4775 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4776 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4777SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4778SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4779Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4780Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4781
4782*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4783
4784* Objective-C
4785
4786Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4787integrated into GDB.
4788
4789* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4790
4791DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4792information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4793By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4794backtraces.
4795
4796The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4797have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4798DWARF 2 CFI support.
4799
4800* Hosted file I/O.
4801
4802GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4803file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4804remote protocol documentation for details.
4805
4806* All targets using the new architecture framework.
4807
4808All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4809architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4810to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4811ppc32 on ppc64).
4812
4813* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4814
4815GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4816per-thread variables.
4817
4818* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4819
4820GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4821GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4822
4823* Separate debug info.
4824
4825GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4826automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4827of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4828system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4829and optional debug files.
4830
4831* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4832
4833DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4834describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4835debugger.
4836
4837GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4838for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4839
4840* Java
4841
4842A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4843Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4844considered "useable".
4845
4846* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4847
4848The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4849commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4850kernel.
4851
4852* GDB supports logging output to a file
4853
4854There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4855used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4856
4857* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4858
4859The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4860disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4861command.
4862
4863* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4864
4865The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4866registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4867
4868* Profiling support
4869
4870A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4871be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4872session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4873"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4874data, for more informative profiling results.
4875
4876* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4877
4878The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4879option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4880"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4881
4882Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4883removed.
4884
4885Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4886Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4887Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4888 in a subsequent -var-update.
4889
4890* New native configurations.
4891
4892FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4893
4894* Multi-arched targets.
4895
4896HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4897Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4898
4899* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4900
4901Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4902been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4903configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4904permanently REMOVED.
4905
4906Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4907Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4908H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4909HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4910HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4911HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4912PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4913Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4914 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4915 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4916Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4917Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4918
4919* REMOVED configurations and files
4920
4921V850EA ISA
4922Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4923IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4924i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4925i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4926i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4927HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4928 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4929 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4930Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4931Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4932Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4933OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4934I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4935
4936* MIPS $fp behavior changed
4937
4938The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4939the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4940context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4941address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4942The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4943
4944*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4945
4946* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4947
4948When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4949`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4950in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4951library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4952shared libs like mad''.
4953
4954* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4955
4956Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4957the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4958arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4959powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4960
4961* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4962
4963GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4964and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4965they expand.
4966
4967The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4968invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4969
4970The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4971macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4972
4973Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4974information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4975your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4976information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4977
4978* Multi-arched targets.
4979
4980DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4981DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4982NEC V850 v850-*-*
4983National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4984Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4985Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4986
4987* New targets.
4988
4989Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4990
4991
4992* New native configurations
4993
4994Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4995SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4996MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4997UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4998
4999* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5000
5001Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5002been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5003configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5004permanently REMOVED.
5005
5006Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5007OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5008IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5009Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5010Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5011Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5012i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5013i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5014i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5015HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5016 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5017 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5018I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5019
5020* OBSOLETE languages
5021
5022CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5023
5024* REMOVED configurations and files
5025
5026AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5027A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5028AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5029AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5030AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5031
5032testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5033
5034* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5035
5036This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5037commands. The default is 1024.
5038
5039* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5040
5041Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5042
5043* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5044
5045These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5046to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5047from a file into memory (restore).
5048
5049* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5050
5051The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5052including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5053of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5054
5055*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5056
5057* New targets.
5058
5059Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5060
5061* Bug fixes
5062
5063gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5064mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5065Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5066
5067gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5068dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5069Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5070
5071Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5072Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5073By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5074
5075i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5076avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5077By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5078
5079*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5080
5081* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5082
5083This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5084really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5085In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5086target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5087This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5088(notably embedded) targets.
5089
5090* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5091
5092This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5093process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5094GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5095hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5096
5097* New command line option
5098
5099GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5100
5101* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5102
5103There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5104command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5105a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5106be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5107open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5108issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5109a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5110it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5111GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5112is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5113
5114* Changes in ARM configurations.
5115
5116Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5117configuration is fully multi-arch.
5118
5119* New native configurations
5120
5121ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5122x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5123AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5124Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5125
5126* New targets
5127
5128Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5129
5130* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5131
5132Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5133been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5134configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5135permanently REMOVED.
5136
5137AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5138A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5139AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5140AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5141AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5142
5143testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5144
5145* REMOVED configurations and files
5146
5147TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5148WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5149PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5150PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5151PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5152Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5153Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5154 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5155SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5156Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5157Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5158ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5159Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5160
5161* Changes to command line processing
5162
5163The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5164for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5165
5166* Changes to key bindings
5167
5168There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5169
5170*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5171
5172Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5173
5174Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5175corrupted.
5176
5177Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5178
5179Numerous documentation fixes.
5180
5181Numerous testsuite fixes.
5182
5183*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5184
5185* New native configurations
5186
5187Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5188x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5189MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5190MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5191ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5192s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5193
5194* New targets
5195
5196Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5197CRIS cris-axis
5198UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5199
5200* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5201
5202x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5203Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5204Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5205 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5206TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5207WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5208Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5209PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5210PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5211PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5212SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5213Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5214ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5215Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5216
5217stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5218kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5219
5220Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5221been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5222configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5223permanently REMOVED.
5224
5225* REMOVED configurations and files
5226
5227Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5228Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5229Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5230ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5231Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5232ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5233
5234* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5235
5236GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5237sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5238present.
5239
5240* Other news:
5241
5242* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5243
5244* The MI enabled by default.
5245
5246The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5247revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5248engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5249using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5250which is now deprecated.
5251
5252* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5253
5254GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5255main features are supported:
5256
5257 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5258
5259 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5260 extension;
5261
5262 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5263
5264 - a Pascal expression parser.
5265
5266However, some important features are not yet supported.
5267
5268 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5269
5270 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5271
5272 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5273 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5274
5275 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5276
5277 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5278
5279* Changes in completion.
5280
5281Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5282to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5283users expect at the shell prompt.
5284
5285Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5286`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5287program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5288files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5289be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5290considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5291name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5292
5293`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5294
5295* New platform-independent commands:
5296
5297It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5298hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5299documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5300
5301* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5302
5303Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5304revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5305many threads as your system allows you to have.
5306
5307Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5308
5309Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5310multi-threaded programs though.
5311
5312* Changes in MIPS configurations.
5313
5314Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5315
5316GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5317debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5318supported.)
5319
5320* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5321
5322Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5323breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5324implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5325put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5326and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5327registers.
5328
5329The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5330debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5331watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5332
5333* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5334
5335New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5336the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5337
5338New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5339display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5340IDT.
5341
5342New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5343from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5344New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5345a given linear address.
5346
5347GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5348program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5349which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5350
5351DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5352
5353It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5354
5355* Changes in documentation.
5356
5357All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5358Documentation License.
5359
5360Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5361manual.
5362
5363TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5364
5365Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5366manual.
5367
5368The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5369documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5370hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5371
5372* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5373
5374The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5375``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5376contents of this file.
5377
5378* gdba.el deleted
5379
5380GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5381
5382*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5383
5384* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5385
5386Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5387programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5388displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5389greater level of detail.
5390
5391* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5392
5393It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5394bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5395on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5396written.
5397
5398* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5399
5400The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5401necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5402machines ``out of the box''.
5403
5404The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5405possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5406signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5407would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5408interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5409
5410It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5411standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5412even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5413and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5414terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5415
5416The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5417enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5418also works.
5419
5420DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5421GDB.
5422
5423It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5424directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5425times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5426breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5427
5428* New native configurations
5429
5430ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5431PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5432
5433* New targets
5434
5435Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5436x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5437PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5438TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5439
5440* OBSOLETE configurations
5441
5442Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5443Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5444Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5445ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5446Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5447
5448Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5449but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5450these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5451be permanently REMOVED.
5452
5453* Gould support removed
5454
5455Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5456
5457* New features for SVR4
5458
5459On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5460without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5461load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5462
5463* Many C++ enhancements
5464
5465C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5466in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5467
5468* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5469
5470A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5471sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5472with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5473``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5474
5475 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5476 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5477
5478* MIPS 64 remote protocol
5479
5480A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5481expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5482instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5483
5484The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5485added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5486
5487* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5488
5489The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5490``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5491include ``set remote P-packet''.
5492
5493* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5494
5495The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5496accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5497``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5498
5499* ``apropos'' command added.
5500
5501The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5502documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5503try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5504
5505* New MI interface
5506
5507A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5508interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
5509process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5510"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5511enabled by configuring with:
5512
5513 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5514
5515*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5516
5517* New native configurations
5518
5519HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5520HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5521M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5522
5523* New targets
5524
5525Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5526Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5527Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5528
5529* OBSOLETE configurations
5530
5531Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5532
5533Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5534but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5535these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5536be permanently REMOVED.
5537
5538* ANSI/ISO C
5539
5540As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5541buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5542containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5543use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5544available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5545configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5546information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5547already.
5548
5549* Readline 2.2
5550
5551GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5552
5553* set extension-language
5554
5555You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5556languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5557you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5558 set extension-language .c c++
5559The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5560and their associated languages.
5561
5562* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5563
5564When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5565you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5566PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5567
5568 set processor NAME
5569
5570sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5571following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5572
5573 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5574 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5575 403 IBM PowerPC 403
5576 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5577 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5578 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5579 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5580 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5581 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5582 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5583 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5584
5585At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5586special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5587registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5588only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5589
5590* HP-UX support
5591
5592Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5593more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5594library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5595support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5596for xdb and dbx commands.
5597
5598* Catchpoints
5599
5600HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5601generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5602to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5603
5604This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5605argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5606output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5607
5608* Debugging across forks
5609
5610On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5611in the inferior.
5612
5613* TUI
5614
5615HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5616it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5617configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5618
5619* GDB remote protocol additions
5620
5621A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5622Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5623fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5624allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5625
5626For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5627full 64-bit address. The command
5628
5629 set remoteaddresssize 32
5630
5631can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5632the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5633will be discarded.
5634
5635In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5636command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5637
5638 maint packet heythere
5639
5640sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5641disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5642time.
5643
5644The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5645target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5646downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5647
5648* Tracing can collect general expressions
5649
5650You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5651further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5652doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5653
5654* mask-address variable for Mips
5655
5656For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5657a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5658of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5659
5660* Higher serial baud rates
5661
5662GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5663230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5664to achieve all of these rates.)
5665
5666* i960 simulator
5667
5668The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5669builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5670
5671
5672*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5673
5674* New native configurations
5675
5676Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5677Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5678Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5679PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5680PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5681Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5682Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5683
5684* New targets
5685
5686Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5687Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5688Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5689Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5690MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5691MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5692MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5693Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5694Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5695Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5696NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5697
5698* New debugging protocols
5699
5700ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5701M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5702DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5703PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5704PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5705Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5706
5707* DWARF 2
5708
5709All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5710format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5711information.
5712
5713* Java frontend
5714
5715GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5716only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5717
5718* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5719
5720For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5721loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5722locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5723
5724* Live range splitting
5725
5726GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5727range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5728more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5729
5730* Hurd support
5731
5732GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5733updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5734
5735* ARM Thumb support
5736
5737GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5738instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5739instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5740accordingly.
5741
5742* MIPS16 support
5743
5744GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5745instruction set.
5746
5747* Overlay support
5748
5749GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5750linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5751will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5752control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5753additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5754in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5755
5756* info symbol
5757
5758The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5759the symbol at the specified address.
5760
5761* Trace support
5762
5763The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5764asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5765extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5766includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5767file tracepoint.c for more details.
5768
5769* MIPS simulator
5770
5771Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5772by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5773of most MIPS variants.
5774
5775* Sparc simulator
5776
5777Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5778by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5779Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5780
5781* set architecture
5782
5783For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5784basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5785architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5786the possible architectures.
5787
5788*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5789
5790* New native configurations
5791
5792Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5793M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5794PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5795PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5796PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5797RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5798
5799* New targets
5800
5801ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5802I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5803MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5804MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5805PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5806Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
5807Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5808
5809* PowerPC simulator
5810
5811The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5812contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5813PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5814basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5815performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5816
5817* Solaris 2.5
5818
5819GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5820
5821* Windows 95/NT native
5822
5823GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5824To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5825which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5826Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5827ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5828
5829* dont-repeat command
5830
5831If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5832command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5833useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5834extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5835
5836* Send break instead of ^C
5837
5838The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5839rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5840GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5841
5842* Remote protocol timeout
5843
5844The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5845that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5846to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5847
5848* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5849
5850By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5851loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5852stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5853when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5854in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5855
5856Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5857/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5858automatically on hpux10.
5859
5860* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5861
5862Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5863
5864* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5865
5866When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5867may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5868the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5869every character. The default value is 1050.
5870
5871* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5872
5873If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5874a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5875replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5876details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5877remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5878to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5879
5880* Speedups for remote debugging
5881
5882GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5883the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5884and more efficient S-record downloading.
5885
5886* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5887
5888GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5889Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5890
5891*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5892
5893* Psymtabs for XCOFF
5894
5895The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5896can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5897
5898* Remote targets use caching
5899
5900Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5901remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5902it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5903debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5904off' turns the the data cache off.
5905
5906* Remote targets may have threads
5907
5908The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5909in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5910gdb/remote.c for details.
5911
5912* NetROM support
5913
5914If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5915support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5916acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5917write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5918support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5919another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5920sequence is something like
5921
5922 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5923 load <prog>
5924 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5925
5926* Macintosh host
5927
5928GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5929may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5930it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5931available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5932device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5933directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5934scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5935mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5936
5937* Autoconf
5938
5939GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5940but does simplify configuration and building.
5941
5942* hpux10
5943
5944GDB now supports hpux10.
5945
5946*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5947
5948* New native configurations
5949
5950x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5951x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5952NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5953Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5954
5955* New targets
5956
5957A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5958HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5959CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5960PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5961WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5962
5963* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5964
5965GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5966possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5967filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5968the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5969if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5970
5971* Arguments to user-defined commands
5972
5973User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5974Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5975trivial example:
5976define adder
5977 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5978
5979To execute the command use:
5980adder 1 2 3
5981
5982Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5983Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5984use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5985
5986* New `if' and `while' commands
5987
5988This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5989commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5990expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5991execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5992terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5993`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5994if the expression is zero.
5995
5996* Fortran source language mode
5997
5998GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5999Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6000variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6001with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6002Fortran compilers.
6003
6004* Better HPUX support
6005
6006Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6007running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6008processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6009for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6010that behavior do the following before running the program:
6011
6012 adb -w a.out
6013 __dld_flags?W 0x5
6014 control-d
6015
6016This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6017To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6018
6019 adb -w a.out
6020 __dld_flags?W 0x4
6021 control-d
6022
6023You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6024the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6025external linkage.
6026
6027GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6028HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6029
6030* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6031
6032You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6033commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6034current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6035"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6036associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6037configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6038
6039* New DOS host serial code
6040
6041This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6042no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6043a PC's serial port.
6044
6045*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6046
6047* New "complete" command
6048
6049This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6050were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6051
6052* Trailing space optional in prompt
6053
6054"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6055allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6056
6057* Breakpoint hit counts
6058
6059"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6060has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6061can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6062to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6063less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6064that breakpoint.
6065
6066* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6067
6068"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6069an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6070arrays actually contain only short strings.
6071
6072* Shared library breakpoints
6073
6074In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6075breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6076
6077* Hardware watchpoints
6078
6079There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6080targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6081
6082Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6083
6084* Annotations
6085
6086Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6087and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6088
6089* Improved Irix 5 support
6090
6091GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6092
6093* Improved HPPA support
6094
6095GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6096
6097* New native configurations
6098
6099Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6100HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6101Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6102RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6103
6104* New targets
6105
6106OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6107MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6108Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6109
6110* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6111
6112There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6113This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6114
6115* Fixes
6116
6117As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6118and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6119
6120*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6121
6122* Irix 5 is now supported
6123
6124* HPPA support
6125
6126GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6127to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6128GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6129of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6130can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6131
6132
6133*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6134
6135* User visible changes:
6136
6137* Remote Debugging
6138
6139The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6140target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6141debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6142integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6143debugging info for the mips target).
6144
6145* DEC Alpha native support
6146
6147GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6148debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6149work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6150Alpha-specific notes.
6151
6152* Preliminary thread implementation
6153
6154GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6155
6156* LynxOS native and target support for 386
6157
6158This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6159to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6160for details).
6161
6162* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6163
6164This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6165mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6166call methods, ...etc.
6167
6168*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6169
6170 * User visible changes:
6171
6172Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6173supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6174other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6175somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6176
6177Filename completion now works.
6178
6179When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6180arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6181addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6182
6183All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6184vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6185should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6186your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6187to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6188
6189 * DEC alpha support
6190
6191This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6192cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6193
6194
6195*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6196
6197 * Testsuite
6198
6199This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6200The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6201via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6202
6203 * C++ demangling
6204
6205'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6206emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6207Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6208disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6209use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6210
6211 * Simulators
6212
6213GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6214So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6215Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6216
6217 * New targets supported
6218
6219H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6220H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6221SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6222Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6223IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6224
6225Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6226version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6227GO32 memory extender.
6228
6229 * New remote protocols
6230
6231MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6232
6233 * New source languages supported
6234
6235This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6236used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6237into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6238
6239
6240*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6241
6242 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6243
6244GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6245version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6246University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6247compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6248format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6249(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6250
6251Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6252
6253 * Faster and better demangling
6254
6255We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6256demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6257character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6258only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6259This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6260increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6261symbol lookups.
6262
6263`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6264from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6265compiler does not actually implement.
6266
6267 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6268
6269In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6270inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6271recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6272very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6273The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6274circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6275fix.
6276
6277The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6278release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6279
6280 * Improved configure script
6281
6282The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6283you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6284host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6285done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6286
6287We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6288version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6289`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6290The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6291only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6292We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6293
6294 * Documentation improvements
6295
6296There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6297produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6298before submitting changes.
6299
6300The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6301M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6302`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6303you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6304a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6305
6306*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6307We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6308been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6309or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6310`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6311around this problem.
6312
6313 * New features
6314
6315GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6316the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6317`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6318the target program.
6319
6320The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6321how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6322
6323 * New native hosts supported
6324
6325HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6326386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6327
6328 * New targets supported
6329
6330AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6331
6332 * New file formats supported
6333
6334BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6335HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6336
6337 * Major bug fixes
6338
6339Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6340
6341We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6342printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6343
6344We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6345for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6346release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6347
6348You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6349will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6350
6351We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6352for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6353especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6354libraries.
6355
6356The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6357information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6358command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6359any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6360when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6361
6362 * Internal improvements
6363
6364GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6365debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6366
6367GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6368Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6369symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6370contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6371shared code that handles any of them.
6372
6373 * New command line options
6374
6375We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6376
6377 * Mmalloc licensing
6378
6379The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6380General Public License.
6381
6382*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6383
6384 * Host/native/target split
6385
6386GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6387hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6388target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6389local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6390ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6391
6392The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6393GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6394is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6395code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6396any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6397built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6398handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6399
6400GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6401It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6402plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6403
6404 * New hosts supported
6405
6406HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6407386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6408386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6409
6410 * New targets supported
6411
6412Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
641368030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6414
6415 * New native hosts supported
6416
6417386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6418 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6419386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6420
6421 * New file formats supported
6422
6423BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6424supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6425format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6426
6427 * New commands
6428
6429`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6430`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6431These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6432
6433`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6434
6435You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6436scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6437prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6438executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6439
6440 * C++ improvements
6441
6442We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6443info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6444symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6445
6446Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6447
6448 * Major bug fixes
6449
6450The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6451fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6452by the compiler.
6453
6454We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6455support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6456
6457John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6458slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6459that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6460purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6461the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6462mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6463
6464Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6465about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6466completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6467we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6468
6469 * AMD 29k support
6470
6471A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6472specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6473calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6474usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6475in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6476
6477We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6478Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6479of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6480resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6481
6482 * Remote interfaces
6483
6484We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6485with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6486message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6487This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6488needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6489breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6490each instruction being stepped through.
6491
6492The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6493registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6494
6495There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6496find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6497Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6498processor with a serial port.
6499
6500 * Configuration
6501
6502Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6503`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6504supported, and what files each one uses.
6505
6506 * Library changes
6507
6508There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6509disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6510Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6511disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6512
6513The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6514Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6515can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6516grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6517
6518 * Documentation
6519
6520The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6521reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6522as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6523encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6524system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6525bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6526
6527And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6528
6529
6530*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6531
6532 * Better support for C++ function names
6533
6534GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6535names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6536(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6537single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6538Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6539
6540GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6541the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6542You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6543lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6544for the list of formats.
6545
6546 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6547
6548Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6549C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6550directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6551can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6552usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6553about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6554this problem.)
6555
6556 * New 'maintenance' command
6557
6558All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6559the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6560can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6561
6562 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6563 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6564 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6565 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6566 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6567 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6568
6569The following commands are new:
6570
6571 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6572 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6573 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6574
6575 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6576
6577We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6578(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6579be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6580read after argv processing.
6581
6582 * New hosts supported
6583
6584Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6585
6586GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6587
6588We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6589is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6590for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6591masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6592fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6593It costs extra.
6594
6595 * New targets supported
6596
6597Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6598
6599 * More smarts about finding #include files
6600
6601GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6602all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6603greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6604especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6605the one that contains your sources.
6606
6607We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6608breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6609try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6610
6611 * Interesting infernals change
6612
6613GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6614section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6615target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6616stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6617
6618 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6619
6620There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6621 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6622 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6623
6624See the ChangeLog for details.
6625
6626*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6627
6628 * New machines supported (host and target)
6629
6630IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6631
6632SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6633
6634 * New malloc package
6635
6636GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6637Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6638capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6639This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6640pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6641more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6642
6643 * info proc
6644
6645The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6646'help info proc' for details.
6647
6648 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6649
6650The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6651Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6652possible.
6653
6654 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6655
6656Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6657support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6658conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6659environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6660that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6661in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6662
6663 * Cross byte order fixes
6664
6665Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6666targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6667
6668 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6669
6670If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6671system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6672`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6673program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6674called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6675Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6676and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6677the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6678option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6679starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6680
6681You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6682the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6683information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6684slower, but makes future operations faster.
6685
6686The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6687build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6688A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6689use is:
6690
6691 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6692
6693The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6694It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6695shared across multiple host platforms.
6696
6697 * longjmp() handling
6698
6699GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6700siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6701all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6702platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6703
6704 * Solaris 2.0
6705
6706Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6707this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6708reading symbols.
6709
6710 * Bug fixes
6711
6712As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6713People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6714crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6715
6716*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6717
6718 * New machines supported (host and target)
6719
6720SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6721 (except core files)
6722BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6723Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6724
6725 * New machines supported (target)
6726
6727AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6728
6729 * C++ support
6730
6731GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6732The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6733per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6734
6735GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6736`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6737extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6738good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6739will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6740released.
6741
6742 * New features for SVR4
6743
6744GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6745shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6746only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6747
6748The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6749on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6750it prints the address mappings of the process.
6751
6752If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6753bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6754
6755 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6756
6757Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6758now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6759skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6760make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6761same code linked statically.
6762
6763 * New Getopt
6764
6765GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6766version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6767continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6768Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6769added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6770future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6771
6772 * Bugs fixed
6773
6774The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6775Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6776See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6777
6778
6779*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6780
6781 * New machines supported (host and target)
6782
6783Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6784NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6785Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6786
6787 * Almost SCO Unix support
6788
6789We had hoped to support:
6790SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6791(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6792that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6793about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6794
6795 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6796
6797GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6798debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6799is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6800send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6801reqired (if any).
6802
6803 * New Readline
6804
6805GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6806is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6807required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6808
6809 * Bugs fixed
6810
6811The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6812Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6813See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6814
6815 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6816
6817GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6818supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6819symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6820
6821Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6822mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6823debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6824mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6825version 2.
6826
6827Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6828really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6829line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6830variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6831situation somewhat.
6832
6833When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6834However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6835methods.
6836
6837We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6838DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6839encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6840
6841
6842*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6843
6844 * Improved configuration
6845
6846Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6847Porting BFD is simpler.
6848
6849 * Stepping improved
6850
6851The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6852of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6853in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6854function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6855
6856 * Bug fixing
6857
6858Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6859
6860 * New host supported (not target)
6861
6862Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6863
6864
6865*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6866
6867 * Multiple source language support
6868
6869GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6870It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6871and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6872language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6873You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6874`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6875
6876 * GDB and Modula-2
6877
6878GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6879currently under development at the State University of New York at
6880Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6881continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6882
6883Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6884debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6885symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6886
6887There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6888in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6889
6890 * set write on/off
6891
6892GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6893a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6894the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6895by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6896effect immediately.
6897
6898 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6899
6900When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6901shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6902The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6903examining core files.
6904
6905 * set listsize
6906
6907You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6908The default is 10.
6909
6910 * New machines supported (host and target)
6911
6912SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6913Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6914Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6915
6916 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6917
6918IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6919
6920 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6921
6922AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6923AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6924Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6925
6926 * New remote interfaces
6927
6928AMD 29000 Adapt
6929AMD 29000 Minimon
6930
6931
6932*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6933
6934 * New Facilities
6935
6936Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6937
6938Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6939target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6940is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6941remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6942remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6943also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6944using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6945stub on the target system.
6946
6947New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6948
6949GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6950library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6951object file types such as a.out and coff.
6952
6953There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6954refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6955
6956
6957 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6958
6959All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6960by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6961
6962For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6963``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6964Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6965
6966What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6967print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6968will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6969all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6970
6971confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6972 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6973 it is already running. Default is ON.
6974
6975editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6976 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6977 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6978 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6979 Default is ON.
6980
6981history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6982 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6983 or the value of the environment variable
6984 GDBHISTFILE.
6985
6986history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6987 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6988 HISTSIZE.
6989
6990history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6991 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6992 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6993
6994history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6995 history expansion will be performed on
6996 command line input. The default is OFF.
6997
6998radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6999 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7000 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7001
7002height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7003 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7004 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7005 variable TERM.
7006
7007width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7008 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7009 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7010 variable TERM.
7011
7012Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7013``set width'' instead.
7014
7015print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7016 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7017 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7018 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7019
7020print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7021 is OFF.
7022
7023print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7024 "raw" form if off.
7025
7026print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7027 like instructions.
7028
7029print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7030
7031
7032 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7033
7034The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7035new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7036are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7037window.
7038
7039
7040 * Support for Shared Libraries
7041
7042GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7043Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7044before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7045happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7046At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7047from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7048shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7049It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7050
7051sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7052 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7053 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7054
7055info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7056
7057
7058 * Watchpoints
7059
7060A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7061expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7062tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7063quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7064problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7065more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7066
7067watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7068
7069info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7070
7071delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7072disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7073enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7074
7075
7076 * C++ multiple inheritance
7077
7078When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7079for C++ programs.
7080
7081 * C++ exception handling
7082
7083Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7084ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7085the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7086handler's context).
7087
7088catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7089 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7090 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7091
7092info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7093 current stack frame.
7094
7095
7096 * Minor command changes
7097
7098The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7099command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7100is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7101
7102The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7103at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7104frames without printing.
7105
7106 * New directory command
7107
7108'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7109The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7110about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7111with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7112find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7113
7114 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7115
7116For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7117for more details.
7118
7119GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7120two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7121Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7122where the program that you are debugging will run.
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