Add an optional offset option to the "add-symbol-file" command
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.1
5
6 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
7 offset to all sections.
8
9 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
10 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
11 address of individual sections using '-s'.
12
13 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
14 (address of the text section).
15
16 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
17 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
18 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
19 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
20 default.
21
22 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
23 for the rest of the current command.
24
25 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
26 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
27
28 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
29 files created on FreeBSD systems.
30
31 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
32 alignof.
33
34 * New commands
35
36 set debug fbsd-nat
37 show debug fbsd-nat
38 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
39
40 set|show varsize-limit
41 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
42 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
43 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
44
45 set|show record btrace cpu
46 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
47 branch trace decode.
48
49 maint check libthread-db
50 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
51 library
52
53 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
54 maint show check-libthread-db
55 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
56 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
57 perform such checks.
58
59 * Python API
60
61 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
62
63 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
64 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
65
66 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
67
68 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
69 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
70 of convenience variables.
71
72 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
73 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
74 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
75
76 * New targets
77
78 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
79
80 * Removed targets and native configurations
81
82 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
83 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
84 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
85 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
86
87 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
88
89 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
90 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
91 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
92 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
93 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
94 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
95 reported.
96
97 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
98
99 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
100 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
101 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
102
103 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
104 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
105
106 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
107 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
108 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
109 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
110 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
111
112 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
113 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
114 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
115 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
116
117 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
118 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
119
120 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
121 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
122 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
123
124 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
125 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
126 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
127
128 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
129 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
130 environment" command.
131
132 * Completion improvements
133
134 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
135 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
136 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
137 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
138 correctly:
139
140 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
141 (gdb) b function(int)
142
143 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
144 C++ anonymous namespaces:
145
146 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
147 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
148 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
149 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
150
151 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
152 completion support, that better understands what you're
153 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
154 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
155 setting a breakpoint.
156
157 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
158
159 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
160
161 * New command line options (gcore)
162
163 -a
164 Dump all memory mappings.
165
166 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
167
168 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
169 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
170 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
171
172 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
173
174 A::B::func()
175 B::func()
176
177 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
178 on both symbols.
179
180 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
181 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
182 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
183 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
184 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
185 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
186 a breakpoint from Python.
187
188 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
189
190 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
191 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
192 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
193
194 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
195
196 function[abi:cxx11](int)
197 ^^^^^^^^^^^
198
199 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
200 no tag, like:
201
202 (gdb) b function(int)
203
204 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
205
206 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
207
208 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
209
210 * Python Scripting
211
212 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
213 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
214 description of these.
215
216 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
217 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
218 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
219
220 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
221 manual for a further description of this feature.
222
223
224 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
225
226 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
227 specified initial working directory.
228
229 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
230 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
231
232 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
233 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
234
235 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
236 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
237
238 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
239 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
240 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
241 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
242 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
243
244 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
245 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
246 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
247
248 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
249 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
250 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
251 in the *stopped notification.
252
253 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
254 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
255
256 * New remote packets
257
258 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
259 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
260 the inferior when starting it.
261
262 QEnvironmentUnset
263 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
264 before starting the remote inferior.
265
266 QEnvironmentReset
267 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
268 user-set environment variables should be unset).
269
270 QStartupWithShell
271 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
272
273 QSetWorkingDir
274 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
275 working directory.
276
277 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
278 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
279
280 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
281 filter the tests to be run.
282
283 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
284 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
285
286 * New commands
287
288 set|show cwd
289 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
290
291 set|show compile-gcc
292 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
293 with the 'compile' commands.
294
295 set debug separate-debug-file
296 show debug separate-debug-file
297 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
298
299 set dump-excluded-mappings
300 show dump-excluded-mappings
301 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
302 dumped when generating a core file.
303
304 maint info selftests
305 List the registered selftests.
306
307 starti
308 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
309
310 set|show debug or1k
311 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
312
313 set|show print type nested-type-limit
314 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
315 type printer will show.
316
317 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
318 `o' for nexti.
319
320 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
321
322 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
323 'int'.
324
325 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
326 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
327 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
328 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
329
330 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
331 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
332 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
333 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
334 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
335 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
336
337 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
338 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
339 unless you tell it the variable's type:
340
341 (gdb) p var
342 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
343 (gdb) p (float) var
344 $3 = 3.14
345
346 * New native configurations
347
348 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
349 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
350
351 * New targets
352
353 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
354 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
355 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
356
357 * Removed targets and native configurations
358
359 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
360
361 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
362
363 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
364 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
365 available in future Intel CPUs.
366
367 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
368
369 * Python Scripting
370
371 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
372 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
373
374 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
375 instructions.
376
377 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
378
379 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
380
381 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
382 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
383 removed.
384
385 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
386
387 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
388 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
389
390 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
391
392 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
393 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
394 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
395 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
396 features.
397
398 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
399
400 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
401 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
402 debugger.
403
404 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
405
406 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
407 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
408
409 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
410
411 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
412
413 define mycommand
414 set $i = 0
415 while $i < $argc
416 eval "print $arg%d", $i
417 set $i = $i + 1
418 end
419 end
420
421 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
422
423 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
424 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
425
426 * New native configurations
427
428 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
429
430 * New targets
431
432 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
433 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
434
435 * Removed targets and native configurations
436
437 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
438 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
439
440 * New commands
441
442 flash-erase
443 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
444
445 maint print arc arc-instruction address
446 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
447
448 * New options
449
450 set disassembler-options
451 show disassembler-options
452 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
453 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
454 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
455 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
456 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
457
458 * New MI commands
459
460 -target-flash-erase
461 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
462 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
463
464 -file-list-shared-libraries
465 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
466 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
467
468 -catch-handlers
469 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
470 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
471
472 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
473
474 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
475
476 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
477 default. One must now explicitly configure with
478 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
479 option will be removed in a future release.
480
481 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
482 GDB connection.
483
484 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
485 memory backward from the given address. For example:
486
487 (gdb) bt
488 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
489 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
490 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
491 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
492 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
493 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
494 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
495 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
496 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
497
498 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
499 arrays of dynamic types.
500
501 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
502 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
503 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
504 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
505 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
506 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
507
508 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
509 descriptions.
510
511 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
512 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
513 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
514
515 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
516
517 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
518 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
519 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
520 signal received and code location.
521
522 For example:
523
524 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
525 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
526 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
527 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
528
529 * Rust language support.
530 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
531 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
532 Rust.
533
534 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
535
536 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
537 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
538 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
539 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
540 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
541 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
542 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
543 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
544 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
545 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
546 line.
547
548 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
549
550 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
551 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
552
553 * New commands
554
555 skip -file file
556 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
557 skip -function function
558 skip -rfunction regular-expression
559 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
560 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
561 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
562
563 maint info line-table REGEXP
564 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
565
566 maint selftest
567 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
568
569 new-ui INTERP TTY
570 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
571 using the TTY file for input/output.
572
573 * Python Scripting
574
575 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
576 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
577 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
578 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
579 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
580
581 signal-event EVENTID
582 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
583 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
584 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
585 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
586 signalling an event.
587
588 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
589 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
590 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
591
592 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
593 been removed:
594
595 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
596 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
597 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
598 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
599 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
600 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
601
602 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
603 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
604 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
605 bytecode into native code.
606
607 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
608 recording. For example:
609
610 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
611
612 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
613
614 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
615
616 * New targets
617
618 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
619
620 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
621
622 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
623
624 * Per-inferior thread numbers
625
626 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
627 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
628 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
629
630 (gdb) info threads
631 Id Target Id Frame
632 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
633 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
634 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
635 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
636
637 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
638 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
639 are no longer unique between inferiors.
640
641 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
642 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
643 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
644
645 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
646 IDs.
647
648 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
649 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
650
651 (gdb) thread 2.1
652 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
653 (gdb)
654
655 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
656 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
657 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
658 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
659 threads 2.*".
660
661 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
662 all threads.
663
664 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
665 the current thread.
666
667 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
668 current inferior.
669
670 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
671 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
672 example:
673
674 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
675 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
676
677 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
678
679 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
680
681 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
682 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
683
684 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
685 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
686 clients.
687
688 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
689 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
690 at the same time.
691
692 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
693 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
694 into native code.
695
696 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
697
698 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
699 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
700 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
701
702 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
703 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
704
705 * New commands
706
707 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
708 maint show target-non-stop
709 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
710 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
711 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
712
713 maint set bfd-sharing
714 maint show bfd-sharing
715 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
716
717 set debug bfd-cache
718 show debug bfd-cache
719 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
720
721 set debug fbsd-lwp
722 show debug fbsd-lwp
723 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
724
725 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
726 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
727 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
728
729 set remote thread-events
730 show remote thread-events
731 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
732
733 set ada print-signatures on|off
734 show ada print-signatures"
735 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
736 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
737
738 set max-value-size
739 show max-value-size
740 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
741 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
742 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
743
744 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
745 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
746 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
747 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
748 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
749 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
750
751 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
752 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
753
754 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
755 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
756
757 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
758
759 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
760 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
761 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
762 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
763 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
764 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
765
766 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
767 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
768
769 catch handlers
770 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
771
772 * New remote packets
773
774 exec stop reason
775 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
776
777 exec-events feature in qSupported
778 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
779 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
780 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
781 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
782
783 vCtrlC
784 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
785 non-stop mode.
786
787 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
788 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
789
790 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
791 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
792
793 QThreadEvents
794 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
795 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
796 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
797 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
798 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
799 stop for that same thread.
800
801 N stop reply
802 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
803 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
804 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
805
806 QCatchSyscalls
807 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
808 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
809
810 syscall_entry stop reason
811 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
812
813 syscall_return stop reason
814 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
815
816 * Extended-remote exec events
817
818 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
819 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
820 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
821
822 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
823 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
824 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
825
826 * Thread names in remote protocol
827
828 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
829 thread.
830
831 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
832
833 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
834 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
835 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
836 fork and exec catchpoints.
837
838 * Remote syscall events
839
840 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
841 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
842
843 set remote catch-syscall-packet
844 show remote catch-syscall-packet
845 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
846
847 * MI changes
848
849 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
850 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
851 left.
852
853 * Python Scripting
854
855 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
856 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
857 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
858 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
859 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
860 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
861
862 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
863
864 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
865 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
866 including advance SIMD instructions.
867
868 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
869
870 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
871 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
872 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
873 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
874 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
875 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
876 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
877
878 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
879 cpu information :
880 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
881
882 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
883 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
884 remote serial I/O.
885
886 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
887 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
888 and may include things like its command line arguments.
889
890 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
891 is now available on all platforms.
892
893 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
894 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
895 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
896 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
897 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
898 backward compatibility.
899
900 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
901 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
902 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
903 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
904
905 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
906 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
907 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
908 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
909 packets" below.
910
911 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
912
913 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
914
915 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
916 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
917 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
918 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
919 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
920 See "New remote packets" below.
921
922 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
923 available register groups, including target specific groups.
924
925 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
926 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
927 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
928 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
929 are ignored.
930
931 * Guile Scripting
932
933 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
934
935 * Python Scripting
936
937 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
938 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
939 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
940 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
941 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
942 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
943 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
944 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
945 "const" version of the value respectively.
946
947 * New commands
948
949 maint print symbol-cache
950 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
951
952 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
953 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
954
955 maint flush-symbol-cache
956 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
957
958 record btrace bts
959 record bts
960 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
961
962 compile print
963 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
964
965 tui enable
966 tui disable
967 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
968
969 show mpx bound
970 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
971 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
972
973 record btrace pt
974 record pt
975 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
976
977 maint info btrace
978 Print information about branch tracing internals.
979
980 maint btrace packet-history
981 Print the raw branch tracing data.
982
983 maint btrace clear-packet-history
984 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
985
986 maint btrace clear
987 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
988 anew by the next "record" command.
989
990 * New options
991
992 set debug dwarf-die
993 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
994 show debug dwarf-die
995 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
996
997 set debug dwarf-read
998 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
999 show debug dwarf-read
1000 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1001
1002 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1003 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1004 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1005 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1006
1007 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1008 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1009 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1010 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1011
1012 set debug dwarf-line
1013 show debug dwarf-line
1014 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1015
1016 set max-completions
1017 show max-completions
1018 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1019 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1020 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1021 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1022
1023 set history remove-duplicates
1024 show history remove-duplicates
1025 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1026
1027 maint set symbol-cache-size
1028 maint show symbol-cache-size
1029 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1030
1031 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1032 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1033 BTS format.
1034 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1035 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1036
1037 set debug linux-namespaces
1038 show debug linux-namespaces
1039 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1040
1041 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1042 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1043 Intel Processor Trace format.
1044 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1045 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1046
1047 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1048 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1049 packet history.
1050
1051 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1052 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1053
1054 * Python/Guile scripting
1055
1056 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1057 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1058
1059 * New remote packets
1060
1061 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1062 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1063
1064 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1065 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1066
1067 Qbtrace:pt
1068 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1069 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1070 qSupported query.
1071
1072 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1073 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1074 Trace format.
1075
1076 swbreak stop reason
1077 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1078 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1079 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1080 mode operation.
1081
1082 hwbreak stop reason
1083 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1084 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1085
1086 vFile:fstat:
1087 Return information about files on the remote system.
1088
1089 qXfer:exec-file:read
1090 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1091 create a process running on the remote system.
1092
1093 vFile:setfs:
1094 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1095 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1096 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1097 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1098
1099 fork stop reason
1100 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1101
1102 vfork stop reason
1103 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1104
1105 vforkdone stop reason
1106 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1107 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1108
1109 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1110 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1111 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1112 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1113 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1114 whether these features are enabled.
1115
1116 * Extended-remote fork events
1117
1118 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1119 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1120 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1121 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1122
1123 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1124 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1125 the btrace record target.
1126 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1127
1128 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1129 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1130
1131 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1132 targets.
1133
1134 * Removed command line options
1135
1136 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1137
1138 * Removed targets and native configurations
1139
1140 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1141 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1142
1143 * New configure options
1144
1145 --with-intel-pt
1146 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1147 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1148
1149 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1150 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1151 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1152 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1153
1154 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1155
1156 * Python Scripting
1157
1158 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1159
1160 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1161
1162 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1163
1164 * Python Scripting
1165
1166 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1167 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1168 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1169 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1170 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1171 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1172 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1173 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1174 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1175 selecting a new file to debug.
1176 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1177 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1178
1179 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1180 inferior.
1181
1182 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1183 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1184 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1185 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1186
1187 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1188
1189 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1190 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1191 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1192 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1193
1194 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1195 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1196 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1197 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1198 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1199 interface with this new feature are:
1200
1201 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1202 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1203
1204 * New commands
1205
1206 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1207 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1208 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1209 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1210 as "maint demangler-warning".
1211
1212 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1213 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1214
1215 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1216 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1217 scripts.
1218
1219 maint print user-registers
1220 List all currently available "user" registers.
1221
1222 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1223 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1224 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1225
1226 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1227 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1228 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1229 provided.
1230
1231 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1232 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1233 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1234 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1235 at resume time.
1236
1237 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1238 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1239 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1240 switched threads meanwhile.
1241
1242 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1243
1244 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1245 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1246 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1247 is now the default mode.
1248
1249 * New options
1250
1251 set debug symbol-lookup
1252 show debug symbol-lookup
1253 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1254
1255 * MI changes
1256
1257 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1258 inferiors that have exited.
1259
1260 * New targets
1261
1262 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1263
1264 * Removed targets
1265
1266 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1267
1268 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1269 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1270 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1271 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1272 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1273
1274 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1275 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1276 its alias "share", instead.
1277
1278 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1279
1280 * New command line options
1281
1282 -D data-directory
1283 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1284
1285 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1286 as specified in ISO C99.
1287
1288 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1289 with or without disassembly.
1290
1291 * Guile scripting
1292
1293 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1294 available is determined at configure time.
1295 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1296 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1297
1298 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1299
1300 guile [code]
1301 gu [code]
1302 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1303
1304 guile-repl
1305 gr
1306 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1307
1308 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1309 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1310
1311 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1312 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1313
1314 * New options
1315
1316 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1317 show print symbol-loading
1318 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1319 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1320 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1321 becomes less useful.
1322
1323 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1324 show guile print-stack
1325 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1326
1327 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1328 show auto-load guile-scripts
1329 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1330
1331 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1332 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1333 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1334 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1335 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1336 usage of this option.
1337
1338 set auto-connect-native-target
1339
1340 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1341 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1342 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1343
1344 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1345 show record btrace replay-memory-access
1346 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1347
1348 maint set target-async (on|off)
1349 maint show target-async
1350 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1351 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1352 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1353 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1354
1355 set mi-async (on|off)
1356 show mi-async
1357 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1358 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1359
1360 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1361 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1362
1363 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1364 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1365 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1366 "set target-async on" command.
1367
1368 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1369
1370 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1371 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1372 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1373 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1374 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1375
1376 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1377 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1378 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1379
1380 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1381 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1382 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1383 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1384 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1385 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1386 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1387
1388 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1389 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1390
1391 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1392 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1393 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1394
1395 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1396 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1397 memory or registers.
1398
1399 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1400
1401 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1402 remote. It now works with all targets.
1403
1404 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1405 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1406 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1407 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1408 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1409 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1410 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1411 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1412 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1413 target-stack".
1414
1415 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1416 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1417 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1418
1419 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1420
1421 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1422 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1423 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1424
1425 * New remote packets
1426
1427 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1428 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1429 branch trace incrementally.
1430
1431 * Python Scripting
1432
1433 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1434 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1435 available.
1436 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1437 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1438 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1439 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1440 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
1441
1442 * New targets
1443 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1444
1445 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1446 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1447 its alias "share", instead.
1448
1449 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1450 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1451 instead.
1452
1453 * MI changes
1454
1455 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1456 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1457 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1458 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1459 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1460 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1461 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1462 commands and CLI execution commands.
1463
1464 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
1465
1466 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1467 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1468 recording has been added.
1469
1470 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1471
1472 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1473 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1474
1475 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1476 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1477 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1478 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1479 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1480 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1481 "void".
1482
1483 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1484
1485 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1486
1487 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1488 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1489 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1490 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1491
1492 (gdb) p $rax
1493 $1 = <not saved>
1494
1495 (gdb) info registers rax
1496 rax <not saved>
1497
1498 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1499 "*value not available*".
1500
1501 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1502 to binaries.
1503
1504 * Python scripting
1505
1506 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1507 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1508 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1509 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1510 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1511 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1512
1513 * New targets
1514
1515 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1516 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1517 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1518
1519 * Removed native configurations
1520
1521 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1522 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1523
1524 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1525 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1526 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1527 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1528 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1529 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1530 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1531
1532 * New commands:
1533 catch rethrow
1534 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1535 maint check-psymtabs
1536 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1537 maint check-symtabs
1538 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1539 maint expand-symtabs
1540 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1541
1542 show configuration
1543 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1544
1545 maint set|show per-command
1546 maint set|show per-command space
1547 maint set|show per-command time
1548 maint set|show per-command symtab
1549 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1550
1551 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1552 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1553 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1554 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1555 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1556
1557 info exceptions
1558 info exceptions REGEXP
1559 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1560 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1561 are listed.
1562
1563 * New options
1564
1565 set debug symfile off|on
1566 show debug symfile
1567 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1568 symbol tables within those files
1569
1570 set print raw frame-arguments
1571 show print raw frame-arguments
1572 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1573 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1574
1575 set remote trace-status-packet
1576 show remote trace-status-packet
1577 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1578
1579 set debug nios2
1580 show debug nios2
1581 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1582
1583 set range-stepping
1584 show range-stepping
1585 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1586
1587 set startup-with-shell
1588 show startup-with-shell
1589 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1590 directly.
1591
1592 set code-cache
1593 show code-cache
1594 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1595 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1596
1597 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1598 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1599 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1600 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1601 "set height 0".
1602
1603 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1604 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1605 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1606
1607 * New command-line options
1608 --configuration
1609 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1610
1611 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1612 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1613
1614 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1615 GDB command gcore.
1616
1617 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1618
1619 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1620 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1621
1622 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1623 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1624
1625 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1626 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1627 due to an uncaught signal.
1628
1629 * MI changes
1630
1631 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1632 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1633 command, which should contain "language-option".
1634
1635 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1636 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1637
1638 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1639 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1640 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1641 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1642 "undefined-command-error-code".
1643
1644 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1645 Trace Format now.
1646
1647 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1648
1649 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1650 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1651 are displayed.
1652
1653 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1654 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1655
1656 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1657 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1658 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1659
1660 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1661 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1662 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1663 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1664 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1665 "exec-run-start-option".
1666
1667 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1668 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1669
1670 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1671 the new "info exceptions" command.
1672
1673 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1674 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1675 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1676 ** ElinOS
1677 ** Wind River Linux
1678
1679 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1680 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1681 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1682 below.
1683
1684 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1685 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1686
1687 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1688 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1689 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1690
1691 * New remote packets
1692
1693 vCont;r
1694
1695 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1696 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1697 involvemement at each single-step.
1698
1699 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1700 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1701 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1702 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1703 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1704 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1705 speedup.
1706
1707 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1708
1709 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1710 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1711
1712 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1713 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1714 trace state variables.
1715
1716 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1717 target.
1718
1719 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1720 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1721
1722 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1723
1724 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1725 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1726 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1727 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1728
1729 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1730
1731 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1732 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1733 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1734 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1735
1736 set|show record full insn-number-max
1737 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1738 set|show record full memory-query
1739
1740 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1741 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1742 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1743 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1744 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1745
1746 record btrace
1747
1748 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1749 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1750
1751 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1752 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1753 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1754
1755 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1756 instruction granularity
1757
1758 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1759 function granularity
1760
1761 * New native configurations
1762
1763 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1764 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1765 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1766 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1767
1768 * New targets
1769
1770 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1771 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1772 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1773 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1774 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1775
1776 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1777 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1778 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1779 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1780 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1781 --data-directory command-line option.
1782
1783 * New command line options:
1784
1785 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1786 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1787
1788 * Removed command line options
1789
1790 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1791 Emacs.
1792
1793 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1794 type formatting.
1795
1796 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1797
1798 * Python scripting
1799
1800 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1801
1802 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1803
1804 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1805
1806 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1807
1808 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1809 of architecture in the Python API.
1810
1811 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1812 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1813
1814 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1815
1816 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1817 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1818 ** $_strlen(str)
1819 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1820
1821 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1822 given an argument.
1823
1824 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1825 default for GCC since November 2000.
1826
1827 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1828
1829 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1830 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1831
1832 * New configure options
1833
1834 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1835 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1836 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1837 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1838 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1839 options allow the user to override that default.
1840 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1841 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1842 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1843
1844 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1845
1846 catch signal
1847 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1848 conditions to be attached.
1849
1850 maint info bfds
1851 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1852
1853 python-interactive [command]
1854 pi [command]
1855 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1856 and print the result of expressions.
1857
1858 py [command]
1859 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1860
1861 enable type-printer [name]...
1862 disable type-printer [name]...
1863 Enable or disable type printers.
1864
1865 * Removed commands
1866
1867 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1868 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1869 instead.
1870
1871 * New options
1872
1873 set print type methods (on|off)
1874 show print type methods
1875 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1876 The default is to show them.
1877
1878 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1879 show print type typedefs
1880 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1881 The default is to show them.
1882
1883 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1884 show filename-display
1885 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1886 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1887
1888 set trace-buffer-size
1889 show trace-buffer-size
1890 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1891
1892 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1893 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1894 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1895
1896 set debug aarch64
1897 show debug aarch64
1898 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1899 The default is off.
1900
1901 set debug coff-pe-read
1902 show debug coff-pe-read
1903 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1904 exported symbols.
1905
1906 set debug mach-o
1907 show debug mach-o
1908 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1909 processing.
1910
1911 set debug notification
1912 show debug notification
1913 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1914
1915 * MI changes
1916
1917 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1918 "=cmd-param-changed".
1919 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1920 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1921 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1922 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1923 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1924 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1925 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1926 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1927 "=memory-changed".
1928 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1929 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1930 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1931 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1932 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1933 library load/unload events.
1934 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1935 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1936 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1937 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1938 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1939 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1940 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1941 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1942
1943 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1944 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1945 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1946 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1947
1948 * New remote packets
1949
1950 QTBuffer:size
1951 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1952 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1953
1954 Qbtrace:bts
1955 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1956 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1957 qSupported query.
1958
1959 Qbtrace:off
1960 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1961 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1962
1963 qXfer:btrace:read
1964 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1965 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1966
1967 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1968
1969 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1970 for more x32 ABI info.
1971
1972 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1973
1974 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1975
1976 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1977 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1978 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1979 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1980 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1981 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1982 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1983 "info os msg" lists message queues
1984 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1985
1986 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1987 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1988 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1989 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1990 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1991 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1992
1993 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1994 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1995 record/replay support.
1996
1997 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1998
1999 * Python scripting
2000
2001 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2002 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2003
2004 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2005
2006 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2007 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2008
2009 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2010
2011 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2012 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2013
2014 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2015 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2016 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2017 symbol's value.
2018
2019 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2020 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2021
2022 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2023 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2024 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2025
2026 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2027 object associated with a PC value.
2028
2029 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2030 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2031
2032 * Go language support.
2033 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2034 language.
2035
2036 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2037 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2038
2039 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2040 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2041
2042 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2043 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2044 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2045 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2046 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2047 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2048
2049 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2050 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2051 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2052 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2053
2054 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2055 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2056
2057 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2058 since December 2007.
2059
2060 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2061 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2062 command does. For instance:
2063
2064 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2065
2066 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2067 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2068 created, using the "condition" command.
2069
2070 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2071 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2072
2073 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2074
2075 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2076 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2077 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2078 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2079 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2080 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2081 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2082 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2083
2084 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2085 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2086 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2087 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2088 the .gdb_index section.
2089
2090 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2091
2092 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2093 target.
2094
2095 * MI changes
2096
2097 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2098
2099 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2100
2101 * New commands
2102
2103 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2104 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2105 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2106
2107 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2108 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2109
2110 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2111 several hits.
2112
2113 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2114 C++ and Java objects.
2115
2116 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2117 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2118 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2119 configured with '--with-python'.
2120
2121 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2122 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2123 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2124 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2125 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2126 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2127 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2128
2129 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2130 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2131 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2132 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2133
2134 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2135 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2136 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2137 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2138
2139 ** "set print symbol"
2140 "show print symbol"
2141 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2142 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2143 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2144
2145 * Deprecated commands
2146
2147 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2148 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2149
2150 * New targets
2151
2152 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2153 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2154
2155 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2156 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2157 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2158 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2159 evaluates to true.
2160
2161 * New options
2162
2163 set mips compression
2164 show mips compression
2165 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2166 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2167 mips16
2168 micromips
2169 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2170
2171 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2172 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2173 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2174 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2175 available mode.
2176 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2177 target.
2178
2179 set auto-load off
2180 Disable auto-loading globally.
2181
2182 show auto-load
2183 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2184
2185 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2186 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2187 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2188
2189 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2190 show auto-load python-scripts
2191 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2192
2193 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2194 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2195 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2196
2197 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2198 show auto-load libthread-db
2199 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2200
2201 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2202 show auto-load scripts-directory
2203 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2204 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2205 of the directories listed by this option.
2206 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2207
2208 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2209 show auto-load safe-path
2210 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2211 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2212
2213 set debug auto-load on|off
2214 show debug auto-load
2215 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2216
2217 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2218 show dprintf-style
2219 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2220 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2221 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2222 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2223
2224 set dprintf-function <expr>
2225 show dprintf-function
2226 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2227 show dprintf-channel
2228 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2229 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2230
2231 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2232 show disconnected-dprintf
2233 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2234 after GDB disconnects.
2235
2236 * New configure options
2237
2238 --with-auto-load-dir
2239 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2240 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2241 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2242 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2243 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2244
2245 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2246 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2247 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2248
2249 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2250 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2251 security feature.
2252
2253 * New remote packets
2254
2255 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2256
2257 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2258 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2259 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2260 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2261
2262 QProgramSignals:
2263
2264 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2265 program without GDB involvement.
2266
2267 * New command line options
2268
2269 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2270 before loading inferior.
2271 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2272 execute it before loading inferior.
2273
2274 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2275
2276 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2277 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2278 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2279 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2280 inferior changes.
2281
2282 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2283 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2284
2285 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2286 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2287 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2288 target hardware watchpoint.
2289
2290 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2291 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2292 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2293 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2294
2295 * Python scripting
2296
2297 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2298 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2299 existing one.
2300
2301 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2302 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2303 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2304 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2305 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2306 the stack trace.
2307
2308 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2309 Python API.
2310
2311 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2312 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2313 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2314 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2315 corresponding value.
2316
2317 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2318 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2319 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2320 on GDB start-up.
2321
2322 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2323 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2324 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2325 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2326
2327 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2328
2329 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2330 "gdb.breakpoints".
2331
2332 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2333 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2334 available in the CLI.
2335
2336 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2337 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2338 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2339 "some_type.items()".
2340
2341 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2342 new object file.
2343
2344 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2345 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2346 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2347 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2348 any anonymous fields.
2349
2350 * MI changes
2351
2352 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2353 "solib-event".
2354
2355 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2356 "=breakpoint-modified".
2357
2358 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2359
2360 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2361 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2362 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2363 lives.
2364
2365 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2366 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2367 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2368 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2369 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2370
2371 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2372 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2373
2374 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2375 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2376 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2377 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2378 use this option to specify where to find it.
2379
2380 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2381 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2382 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2383 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2384 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2385 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2386 section in the user manual for more details.
2387
2388 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2389 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2390 become available after that.
2391
2392 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2393
2394 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2395 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2396 gcc version 4.7.
2397
2398 * New commands
2399
2400 !SHELL COMMAND
2401 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2402 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2403
2404 * Changed commands
2405
2406 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2407 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2408 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2409
2410 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2411 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2412 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2413
2414 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2415 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2416 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2417 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2418 name starts with a hyphen.
2419
2420 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2421 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2422 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2423 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2424 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2425 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2426 number of bytes that will be collected.
2427
2428 tstart [NOTES]
2429 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2430 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2431 setting the variable trace-notes.
2432
2433 tstop [NOTES]
2434 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2435 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2436 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2437 trace-stop-notes.
2438
2439 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2440 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2441 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2442 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2443 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2444 is running.
2445
2446 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2447 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2448 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2449
2450 * New options
2451
2452 set debug dwarf2-read
2453 show debug dwarf2-read
2454 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2455 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2456
2457 set debug symtab-create
2458 show debug symtab-create
2459 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2460 creation. The default is off.
2461
2462 set extended-prompt
2463 show extended-prompt
2464 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2465 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2466 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2467 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2468 prompt is displayed.
2469
2470 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2471 show print entry-values
2472 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2473 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2474 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2475
2476 set debug entry-values
2477 show debug entry-values
2478 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2479 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2480
2481 set basenames-may-differ
2482 show basenames-may-differ
2483 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2484 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2485 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2486 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2487 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2488 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2489 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2490 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2491
2492 set trace-user
2493 show trace-user
2494 set trace-notes
2495 show trace-notes
2496 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2497 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2498 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2499 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2500
2501 set trace-stop-notes
2502 show trace-stop-notes
2503 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2504 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2505 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2506 started by someone else.
2507
2508 * New remote packets
2509
2510 QTEnable
2511
2512 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2513
2514 QTDisable
2515
2516 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2517
2518 QTNotes
2519
2520 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2521
2522 qTP
2523
2524 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2525
2526 qTMinFTPILen
2527
2528 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2529 be placed.
2530
2531 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2532 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2533
2534 * New targets
2535
2536 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2537
2538 * New Simulators
2539
2540 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2541
2542 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2543
2544 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2545
2546 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2547
2548 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2549 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2550 matches the given regular expression.
2551
2552 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2553
2554 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2555 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2556
2557 * New command line options
2558
2559 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2560 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2561
2562 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2563 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2564
2565 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2566 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2567 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2568
2569 * GDB now understands thread names.
2570
2571 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2572 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2573
2574 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2575 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2576
2577 * OpenCL C
2578 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2579 has been integrated into GDB.
2580
2581 * Python scripting
2582
2583 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2584 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2585 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2586
2587 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2588 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2589 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2590 and allows for more dynamic content.
2591
2592 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2593 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2594 have an is_valid method.
2595
2596 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2597 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2598 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2599
2600 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2601
2602 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2603 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2604 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2605 that function like so:
2606
2607 result = some_value (10,20)
2608
2609 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2610 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2611 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2612
2613 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2614 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2615 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2616 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2617 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2618
2619 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2620 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2621
2622 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2623
2624 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2625 selected thread.
2626
2627 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2628 holds the thread's name.
2629
2630 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2631 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2632 occurring in the process being debugged.
2633 The following events are currently supported:
2634 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2635 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2636 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2637
2638 * C++ Improvements:
2639
2640 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2641 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2642
2643 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2644
2645 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2646 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2647 was added to GCC 4.5.
2648
2649 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2650 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2651 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2652 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2653 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2654 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2655
2656 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2657 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2658 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2659 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2660 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2661
2662 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2663 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2664 execution to a label.
2665
2666 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2667 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2668 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2669 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2670
2671 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2672 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2673 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2674 of scope.
2675
2676 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2677
2678 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2679 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2680 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2681 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2682 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2683 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2684
2685 (gdb) info threads
2686 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2687
2688 While now you see this:
2689
2690 (gdb) info threads
2691 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2692
2693 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2694 dumps.
2695
2696 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2697 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2698 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2699 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2700
2701 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2702 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2703 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2704 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2705 section in the user manual for more details.
2706
2707 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2708
2709 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2710 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2711
2712 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2713
2714 * New native configurations
2715
2716 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2717
2718 * New targets:
2719
2720 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2721
2722 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2723 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2724 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2725 in the GDB user manual.
2726
2727 * Guile support was removed.
2728
2729 * New features in the GNU simulator
2730
2731 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2732
2733 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2734
2735 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2736
2737 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2738
2739 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2740 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2741 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2742 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2743 was always disabled for such configurations.
2744
2745 * C++ Improvements:
2746
2747 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2748
2749 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2750 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2751 For example:
2752 namespace A
2753 {
2754 class B { };
2755 void foo (B) { }
2756 }
2757 ...
2758 A::B b
2759 foo(b)
2760 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2761 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2762 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2763
2764 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2765
2766 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2767 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2768 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2769 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2770 entry.
2771 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2772 mentioned flavors of operators.
2773
2774 ** static const class members
2775
2776 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2777 class definition has been fixed.
2778
2779 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2780
2781 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2782 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2783 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2784 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2785 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2786 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2787
2788 * Static tracepoints
2789
2790 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2791 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2792 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2793 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2794 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2795 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2796 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2797 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2798 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2799 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2800 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2801 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2802 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2803 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2804 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2805 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2806 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2807 the "New remote packets" section below.
2808
2809 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2810
2811 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2812 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2813 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2814 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2815
2816 * Observer mode
2817
2818 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2819 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2820 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2821 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2822 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2823 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2824 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2825
2826 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2827 current thread.
2828
2829 * New remote packets
2830
2831 qGetTIBAddr
2832
2833 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2834
2835 qRelocInsn
2836
2837 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2838 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2839 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2840 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2841 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2842 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2843
2844 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2845
2846 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2847
2848 qTSTMat
2849
2850 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2851 program.
2852
2853 qXfer:statictrace:read
2854
2855 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2856 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2857 to gdb's qSupported query.
2858
2859 QAllow
2860
2861 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2862
2863 QTDPsrc
2864
2865 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2866 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2867
2868 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2869 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2870 a directory.
2871
2872 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2873
2874 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2875 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2876 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2877 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2878
2879 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2880 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2881 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2882 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2883 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2884 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2885 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2886
2887 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2888 for static tracepoints support.
2889
2890 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2891
2892 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2893 it understands register description.
2894
2895 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2896
2897 * X86 general purpose registers
2898
2899 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2900 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2901 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2902 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2903 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2904
2905 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2906 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2907 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2908 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2909 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2910 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2911
2912 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2913 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2914 in the specified file.
2915
2916 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2917 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2918 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2919 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2920 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2921 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2922 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2923 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2924 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2925 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2926
2927 * New commands
2928
2929 eval template, expressions...
2930 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2931 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2932
2933 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2934 show target-file-system-kind
2935 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2936 names.
2937
2938 save breakpoints <filename>
2939 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2940 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2941 definitions, use the `source' command.
2942
2943 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2944 is now deprecated.
2945
2946 info static-tracepoint-markers
2947 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2948
2949 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2950 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2951 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2952
2953 set observer on|off
2954 show observer
2955 Enable and disable observer mode.
2956
2957 set may-write-registers on|off
2958 set may-write-memory on|off
2959 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2960 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2961 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2962 set may-interrupt on|off
2963 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2964 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2965 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2966 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2967 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2968 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2969 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2970
2971 set record memory-query on|off
2972 show record memory-query
2973 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2974 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2975
2976 * Changed commands
2977
2978 disassemble
2979 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2980
2981 * Python scripting
2982
2983 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2984 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2985 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2986 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2987 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2988
2989 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
2990 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2991 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2992 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
2993
2994 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
2995 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2996
2997 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
2998
2999 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3000
3001 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3002
3003 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3004 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3005 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3006
3007 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3008 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3009 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3010 regular breakpoints.
3011
3012 * New targets
3013
3014 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3015
3016 * D language support.
3017 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3018 language.
3019
3020 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3021 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3022 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3023 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3024 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3025
3026 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3027 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3028 conditions of the form:
3029
3030 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3031
3032 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3033 interface mentioned above.
3034
3035 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3036
3037 * C++ Improvements
3038
3039 ** Namespace Support
3040
3041 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3042 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3043 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3044 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3045 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3046
3047 ** Bug Fixes
3048
3049 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3050 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3051 qualified name.
3052
3053 ** Cast Operators
3054
3055 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3056 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3057
3058 * New targets
3059
3060 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3061 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3062
3063 * New Simulators
3064
3065 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3066 Renesas RX rx
3067
3068 * Multi-program debugging.
3069
3070 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3071 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3072 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3073 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3074 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3075 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3076 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3077 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3078
3079 * New tracing features
3080
3081 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3082
3083 ** Trace state variables
3084
3085 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3086 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3087 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3088 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3089 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3090 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3091 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3092 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3093 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3094 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3095
3096 ** Fast tracepoints
3097
3098 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3099 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3100 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3101 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3102 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3103 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3104 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3105 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3106 the regular trace command.
3107
3108 ** Disconnected tracing
3109
3110 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3111 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3112 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3113 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3114 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3115
3116 ** Trace files
3117
3118 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3119 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3120 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3121 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3122 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3123 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3124 <name>".
3125
3126 ** Circular trace buffer
3127
3128 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3129 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3130 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3131 not be available for all target agents.
3132
3133 * Changed commands
3134
3135 disassemble
3136 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3137 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3138
3139 info variables
3140 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3141 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3142
3143 source
3144 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3145 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3146 support.
3147
3148 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3149 "set script-extension" (see below).
3150
3151 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3152
3153 record save [<FILENAME>]
3154 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3155 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3156
3157 record restore <FILENAME>
3158 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3159 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3160
3161 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3162 Add a new inferior.
3163
3164 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3165 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3166 inferior has loaded.
3167
3168 remove-inferior ID
3169 Remove an inferior.
3170
3171 maint info program-spaces
3172 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3173
3174 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3175 show remote interrupt-sequence
3176 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3177 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3178 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3179 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3180 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3181
3182 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3183 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3184 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3185 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3186 Linux kernel.
3187
3188 set remotebreak [on | off]
3189 show remotebreak
3190 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3191
3192 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3193 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3194
3195 info tvariables
3196 List trace state variables and their values.
3197
3198 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3199 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3200
3201 teval EXPR, ...
3202 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3203 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3204
3205 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3206 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3207
3208 * New expression syntax
3209
3210 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3211 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3212
3213 * New options
3214
3215 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3216 show follow-exec-mode
3217 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3218 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3219 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3220
3221 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3222 show default-collect
3223 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3224 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3225 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3226
3227 set disconnected-tracing
3228 show disconnected-tracing
3229 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3230 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3231 upon disconnection.
3232
3233 set circular-trace-buffer
3234 show circular-trace-buffer
3235 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3236 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3237 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3238 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3239
3240 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3241 show script-extension
3242 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3243 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3244 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3245 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3246 evaluation failed.
3247 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3248
3249 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3250 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3251 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3252 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3253 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3254 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3255 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3256 is on.
3257
3258 * Python API Improvements
3259
3260 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3261 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3262 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3263
3264 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3265 `is_base_class' attribute.
3266
3267 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3268
3269 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3270 evaluate an expression.
3271
3272 * New remote packets
3273
3274 QTDV
3275 Define a trace state variable.
3276
3277 qTV
3278 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3279
3280 QTDisconnected
3281 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3282
3283 QTBuffer:circular
3284 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3285
3286 qTfP, qTsP
3287 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3288
3289 * Bug fixes
3290
3291 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3292
3293 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3294 much more reliable. In particular:
3295 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3296 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3297 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3298 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3299 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3300 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3301 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3302 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3303 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3304 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3305 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3306 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3307 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3308 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3309 non-threaded programs.
3310
3311 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3312 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3313 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3314 executable program.
3315
3316 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
3317
3318 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3319 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3320 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3321 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3322 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3323
3324 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3325 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3326 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3327 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3328 for tracepoint actions.
3329
3330 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3331 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3332 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
3333
3334 * Process record and replay
3335
3336 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3337 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3338 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3339 execute commands.
3340
3341 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3342 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3343 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3344 reverse execution.
3345
3346 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3347 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3348 2.6.28 or later.
3349
3350 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3351 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3352 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3353 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3354 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3355 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3356 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3357 the installation instructions for more information.
3358
3359 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3360 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3361 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3362 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3363
3364 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3365 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3366
3367 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3368 now complete on file names.
3369
3370 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3371 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3372 For instance, consider:
3373
3374 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3375 # struct example variable;
3376 (gdb) p variable.
3377
3378 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3379 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3380
3381 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3382 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3383
3384 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3385 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3386 macros.
3387
3388 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3389 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3390 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3391
3392 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3393 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3394 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3395 and simulator targets may also provide them.
3396
3397 * New remote packets
3398
3399 qSearch:memory:
3400 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3401
3402 QStartNoAckMode
3403 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3404 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3405 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3406
3407 vKill
3408 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3409 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3410
3411 qXfer:osdata:read
3412 Obtains additional operating system information
3413
3414 qXfer:siginfo:read
3415 qXfer:siginfo:write
3416 Read or write additional signal information.
3417
3418 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3419
3420 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3421 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3422 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3423
3424 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3425 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3426
3427 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3428 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3429 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
3430
3431 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3432 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3433
3434 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3435
3436 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3437
3438 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3439 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3440
3441 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
3442 list of section offsets.
3443
3444 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3445 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3446 have also been fixed.
3447
3448 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3449 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3450 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3451
3452 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3453 example, given:
3454
3455 template<typename T> class C { };
3456 C<char const *> c;
3457
3458 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3459
3460 ptype C<char const *>
3461 ptype C<char const*>
3462 ptype C<const char *>
3463 ptype C<const char*>
3464
3465 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3466
3467 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3468 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3469
3470 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3471 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3472 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3473
3474 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3475 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3476
3477 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3478 gdbserver.
3479
3480 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3481 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3482
3483 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3484 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3485 as appropriate.
3486
3487 * Python scripting
3488
3489 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3490 available is determined at configure time.
3491
3492 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3493
3494 * Ada tasking support
3495
3496 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3497 been introduced:
3498
3499 info tasks
3500 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3501 info task N
3502 Print detailed information about task number N.
3503 task
3504 Print the task number of the current task.
3505 task N
3506 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3507
3508 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3509 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3510
3511 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3512
3513 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3514 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3515 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3516 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3517 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3518 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3519 below.
3520
3521 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3522 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3523 information.
3524
3525 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3526 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3527 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3528 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3529 more information.
3530
3531 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3532
3533 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3534 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3535 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3536 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3537 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3538
3539 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3540 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3541 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3542 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3543 --enable-targets configure option.
3544
3545 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3546
3547 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3548 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3549 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3550 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3551 section in the user manual for more information.
3552
3553 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3554 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3555 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3556 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3557 extensions on linux targets.
3558
3559 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3560
3561 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3562 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3563 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3564 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3565 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3566 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3567 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3568 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3569 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3570
3571 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3572 val1 [, val2, ...]
3573 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3574
3575 maint set python print-stack
3576 maint show python print-stack
3577 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3578
3579 python [CODE]
3580 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3581
3582 macro define
3583 macro list
3584 macro undef
3585 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3586 interactively.
3587
3588 info os processes
3589 Show operating system information about processes.
3590
3591 info inferiors
3592 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3593
3594 inferior NUM
3595 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3596
3597 detach inferior NUM
3598 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3599
3600 kill inferior NUM
3601 Kill inferior number NUM.
3602
3603 * New options
3604
3605 set spu stop-on-load
3606 show spu stop-on-load
3607 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3608
3609 set spu auto-flush-cache
3610 show spu auto-flush-cache
3611 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3612 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3613
3614 set sh calling-convention
3615 show sh calling-convention
3616 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3617
3618 set debug timestamp
3619 show debug timestamp
3620 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3621
3622 set disassemble-next-line
3623 show disassemble-next-line
3624 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3625 the debuggee stops.
3626
3627 set remote noack-packet
3628 show remote noack-packet
3629 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3630 under "New remote packets."
3631
3632 set remote query-attached-packet
3633 show remote query-attached-packet
3634 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3635
3636 set remote read-siginfo-object
3637 show remote read-siginfo-object
3638 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3639 packet.
3640
3641 set remote write-siginfo-object
3642 show remote write-siginfo-object
3643 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3644 packet.
3645
3646 set remote reverse-continue
3647 show remote reverse-continue
3648 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3649
3650 set remote reverse-step
3651 show remote reverse-step
3652 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3653
3654 set displaced-stepping
3655 show displaced-stepping
3656 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3657 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3658 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3659
3660 set debug displaced
3661 show debug displaced
3662 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3663
3664 maint set internal-error
3665 maint show internal-error
3666 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3667
3668 maint set internal-warning
3669 maint show internal-warning
3670 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3671
3672 set exec-wrapper
3673 show exec-wrapper
3674 unset exec-wrapper
3675 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3676
3677 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3678 show multiple-symbols
3679 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3680 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3681 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3682
3683 set breakpoint always-inserted
3684 show breakpoint always-inserted
3685 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3686 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3687 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3688
3689 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3690 show arm fallback-mode
3691 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3692 show arm force-mode
3693 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3694 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3695 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3696 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3697
3698 set disable-randomization
3699 show disable-randomization
3700 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3701 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3702 multiple debugging sessions.
3703
3704 set non-stop
3705 show non-stop
3706 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3707 a breakpoint.
3708
3709 set target-async
3710 show target-async
3711 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3712 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3713 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3714 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3715
3716 set target-wide-charset
3717 show target-wide-charset
3718 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3719 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3720
3721 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3722 show tcp auto-retry
3723 set tcp connect-timeout
3724 show tcp connect-timeout
3725 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3726 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3727 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3728
3729 set libthread-db-search-path
3730 show libthread-db-search-path
3731 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3732 libthread_db.
3733
3734 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3735 show schedule-multiple
3736 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3737 the current process.
3738
3739 set stack-cache
3740 show stack-cache
3741 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3742 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3743 affecting correctness.
3744
3745 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3746 show interactive-mode
3747 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3748 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3749 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3750 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3751 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3752
3753 * Removed commands
3754
3755 info forks
3756 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3757 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3758 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3759 command.
3760
3761 fork NUM
3762 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3763 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3764 alias for the `fork' command.
3765
3766 process PID
3767 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3768 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3769 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3770
3771 delete fork NUM
3772 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3773 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3774 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3775 fork' command.
3776
3777 detach fork NUM
3778 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3779 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3780 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3781 fork' command.
3782
3783 * New native configurations
3784
3785 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3786
3787 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3788
3789 * New targets
3790
3791 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3792 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3793 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3794 S+core 3 score-*-*
3795
3796 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3797 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3798
3799 * Removed commands
3800
3801 catch load
3802 catch unload
3803 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3804
3805 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3806
3807 * New native configurations
3808
3809 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3810 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3811
3812 * New targets
3813
3814 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3815 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3816
3817 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3818
3819 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3820 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3821 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3822 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3823
3824 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3825 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3826
3827 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3828 is resolved.
3829
3830 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3831 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3832 and in inlined functions.
3833
3834 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3835 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3836 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3837
3838 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3839
3840 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3841 registers on PowerPC targets.
3842
3843 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3844 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3845
3846 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3847 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3848
3849 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3850 extended-remote mode.
3851
3852 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3853 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3854 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3855 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3856
3857 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3858 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3859 target architectures.
3860
3861 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3862 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3863 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3864 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3865
3866 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3867 breakpoints now.
3868
3869 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3870 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3871 include:
3872 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3873 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3874 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3875 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3876 of an assignment
3877 - Improved command completion in Ada
3878 - Several bug fixes
3879
3880 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3881 process.
3882
3883 * New commands
3884
3885 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3886 show print frame-arguments
3887 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3888 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3889
3890 remote put
3891 remote get
3892 remote delete
3893 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3894
3895 * New MI commands
3896
3897 -target-file-put
3898 -target-file-get
3899 -target-file-delete
3900 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3901
3902 * New remote packets
3903
3904 vFile:open:
3905 vFile:close:
3906 vFile:pread:
3907 vFile:pwrite:
3908 vFile:unlink:
3909 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3910
3911 vAttach
3912 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3913 mode.
3914
3915 vRun
3916 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3917
3918 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3919
3920 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3921 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3922 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3923
3924 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3925 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3926 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3927
3928 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3929 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3930 is not supported.
3931
3932 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3933 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3934
3935 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3936 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3937
3938 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3939
3940 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3941 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3942 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3943
3944 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3945 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3946
3947 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3948 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3949 as strings.
3950
3951 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3952 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3953 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3954
3955 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3956 iWMMXt coprocessor.
3957
3958 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3959 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3960 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3961
3962 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3963
3964 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3965
3966 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3967 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3968 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3969
3970 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3971 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3972
3973 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3974 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3975 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3976 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3977 Windows and SymbianOS).
3978
3979 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3980 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3981
3982 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3983 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3984
3985 * New commands
3986
3987 set remoteflow
3988 show remoteflow
3989 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3990 when debugging using remote targets.
3991
3992 set mem inaccessible-by-default
3993 show mem inaccessible-by-default
3994 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3995 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3996 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3997 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3998 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3999
4000 set breakpoint auto-hw
4001 show breakpoint auto-hw
4002 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4003 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4004 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4005 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4006 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4007 including "next" and "finish".
4008
4009 catch exception
4010 catch exception unhandled
4011 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4012
4013 catch assert
4014 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4015
4016 set sysroot
4017 show sysroot
4018 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4019 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4020 an alias to "set sysroot".
4021
4022 info spu
4023 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4024 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4025 architecture.
4026
4027 * New native configurations
4028
4029 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4030
4031 set tdesc filename
4032 unset tdesc filename
4033 show tdesc filename
4034 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4035 not query the target for its built-in description.
4036
4037 * New targets
4038
4039 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4040 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4041 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4042
4043 * New remote packets
4044
4045 QPassSignals:
4046 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4047 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4048
4049 qXfer:features:read:
4050 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4051 features.
4052
4053 qXfer:spu:read:
4054 qXfer:spu:write:
4055 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4056 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4057
4058 qXfer:libraries:read:
4059 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4060 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4061 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4062 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4063
4064 * Removed targets
4065
4066 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4067
4068 alpha*-*-osf1*
4069 alpha*-*-osf2*
4070 d10v-*-*
4071 hppa*-*-hiux*
4072 i[34567]86-ncr-*
4073 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4074 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4075 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4076 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4077 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4078 i[34567]86-*-sco*
4079 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4080 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4081 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4082 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4083 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4084 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4085 i[34567]86-*-isc*
4086 m68*-cisco*-*
4087 m68*-tandem-*
4088 mips*-*-pe
4089 rs6000-*-lynxos*
4090 sh*-*-pe
4091
4092 * Other removed features
4093
4094 target abug
4095 target cpu32bug
4096 target est
4097 target rom68k
4098
4099 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4100
4101 target hms
4102 target e7000
4103 target sh3
4104 target sh3e
4105
4106 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4107 H8/300.
4108
4109 target ocd
4110
4111 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4112 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4113 interfaces.
4114
4115 DWARF 1 support
4116
4117 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4118 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4119
4120 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4121
4122 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4123 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4124 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4125 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4126
4127 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4128
4129 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4130 in debugging information.
4131
4132 Scheme support
4133
4134 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4135 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4136
4137 set mips stack-arg-size
4138 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4139
4140 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4141
4142 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4143
4144 * New targets
4145
4146 Xtensa xtensa-elf
4147 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4148
4149 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4150 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4151 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4152
4153 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4154 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4155 supported.
4156
4157 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4158 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4159
4160 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4161 stub provides the required support.
4162
4163 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4164 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4165
4166 * New commands
4167
4168 set substitute-path
4169 unset substitute-path
4170 show substitute-path
4171 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4172 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4173 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4174 between compilation and debugging.
4175
4176 set trace-commands
4177 show trace-commands
4178 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4179 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4180 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4181
4182 * REMOVED features
4183
4184 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4185
4186 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4187 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4188
4189 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4190
4191 * New remote packets
4192
4193 qSupported:
4194 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4195 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4196 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4197 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4198 target.
4199
4200 qXfer:auxv:read:
4201 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4202 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4203
4204 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4205 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4206 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4207
4208 vFlashErase:
4209 vFlashWrite:
4210 vFlashDone:
4211 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4212
4213 * Removed remote packets
4214
4215 qPart:auxv:read:
4216 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4217 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4218
4219 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4220
4221 * New targets
4222
4223 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4224
4225 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4226
4227 * New commands
4228
4229 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4230 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4231
4232 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4233
4234 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4235
4236 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4237 previously saved state.
4238
4239 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4240
4241 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4242
4243 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4244 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4245
4246 info forks List forks of the user program that
4247 are available to be debugged.
4248
4249 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4250 forks of the user program that are
4251 available to be debugged.
4252
4253 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4254 that are available to be debugged (and
4255 kill the forked process).
4256
4257 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4258 that are available to be debugged (and
4259 allow the process to continue).
4260
4261 * New architecture
4262
4263 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4264
4265 * Improved Windows host support
4266
4267 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4268 native console support, and remote communications using either
4269 network sockets or serial ports.
4270
4271 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4272
4273 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4274 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4275 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4276 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4277 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4278 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4279
4280 * REMOVED features
4281
4282 The ARM rdi-share module.
4283
4284 The Netware NLM debug server.
4285
4286 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4287
4288 * New native configurations
4289
4290 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4291 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4292
4293 * New targets
4294
4295 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4296
4297 * New command line options
4298
4299 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4300 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4301 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4302 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4303 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4304 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4305 with the --command (-x) option.
4306
4307 * Deprecated commands removed
4308
4309 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4310 removed:
4311
4312 Command Replacement
4313 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4314 othernames set arm disassembler
4315 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4316 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4317 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4318 regs info registers
4319
4320 * New BSD user-level threads support
4321
4322 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4323 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4324 configurations are:
4325
4326 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4327 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4328 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4329
4330 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4331 are not yet supported.
4332
4333 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4334 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4335
4336 * REMOVED configurations and files
4337
4338 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4339 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4340 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4341
4342 * New "set print array-indexes" command
4343
4344 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4345 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4346 behavior.
4347
4348 * VAX floating point support
4349
4350 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4351
4352 * User-defined command support
4353
4354 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4355 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4356 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4357
4358 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4359
4360 * New command line option
4361
4362 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4363 debugging.
4364
4365 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4366
4367 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4368 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4369 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4370 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4371 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4372
4373 * Internationalization
4374
4375 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4376 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4377 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4378
4379 * Ada
4380
4381 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4382 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4383 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4384
4385 * New native configurations
4386
4387 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4388
4389 * Remote 'p' packet
4390
4391 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4392 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4393
4394 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4395
4396 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4397 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4398 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4399 i386 application).
4400
4401 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4402 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4403 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4404 configurations:
4405
4406 hppa-*-hpux
4407 ia64-*-aix
4408 mips-*-irix*
4409 *-*-lynx
4410 mips-*-linux-gnu
4411 sds protocol
4412 xdr protocol
4413 powerpc bdm protocol
4414
4415 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4416 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4417
4418 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4419
4420 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4421 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4422 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4423 permanently REMOVED.
4424
4425 h8300-*-*
4426 mcore-*-*
4427 mn10300-*-*
4428 ns32k-*-*
4429 sh64-*-*
4430 v850-*-*
4431
4432 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4433
4434 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4435
4436 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4437 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4438 been fixed.
4439
4440 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4441
4442 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4443 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4444 IRIX long double values).
4445
4446 * VAX and "next"
4447
4448 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4449 command. This problem has been fixed.
4450
4451 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4452
4453 * Fix for ``many threads''
4454
4455 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4456 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4457 error message:
4458
4459 ptrace: No such process.
4460 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4461
4462 This problem has been fixed.
4463
4464 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4465
4466 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4467 GDB to dump core).
4468
4469 * New ``start'' command.
4470
4471 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4472
4473 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4474
4475 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4476 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4477 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4478
4479 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4480 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4481 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4482 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4483 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4484 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4485 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4486 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4487 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4488
4489 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
4490
4491 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4492 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4493 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4494 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4495 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4496
4497 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4498 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4499 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4500
4501 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4502
4503 * New native configurations
4504
4505 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4506 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4507 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4508 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4509 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4510 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4511 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4512
4513 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4514
4515 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4516 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4517 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4518 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4519 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4520 work, was also included.
4521
4522 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4523 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4524
4525 h8300-*-*
4526 mcore-*-*
4527 mn10300-*-*
4528 ns32k-*-*
4529 sh64-*-*
4530 v850-*-*
4531 xstormy16-*-*
4532
4533 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4534 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4535
4536 * REMOVED configurations and files
4537
4538 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4539 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4540 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4541 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4542 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4543 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4544 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4545 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4546 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4547 sonymips mips-sony-*
4548 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4549
4550 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4551
4552 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4553
4554 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4555 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4556 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4557 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4558 with GDB".
4559
4560 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4561
4562 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4563 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4564 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4565 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4566 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4567 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4568 are created.
4569
4570 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4571
4572 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4573
4574 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4575 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4576 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4577
4578 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4579
4580 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4581 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4582
4583 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4584
4585 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4586 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4587 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4588
4589 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4590
4591 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4592 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4593
4594 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4595
4596 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4597 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4598 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4599
4600 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4601
4602 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4603 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4604 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4605
4606 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4607
4608 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4609
4610 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4611 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4612
4613 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4614
4615 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4616 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4617 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4618 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4619
4620 * Revised SPARC target
4621
4622 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4623 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4624 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4625 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4626 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4627
4628 * New C++ demangler
4629
4630 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4631 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4632 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4633 programs.
4634
4635 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4636
4637 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4638 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4639 encountered these.
4640
4641 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4642
4643 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4644 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4645 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4646 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4647 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4648 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4649 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4650 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4651 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4652
4653 * New native configurations
4654
4655 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4656 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4657 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4658 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4659 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4660
4661 * New debugging protocols
4662
4663 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4664
4665 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4666
4667 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4668 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4669 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4670
4671 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4672
4673 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4674 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4675 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4676 permanently REMOVED.
4677
4678 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4679 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4680 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4681 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4682 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4683 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4684 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4685 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4686 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4687 sonymips mips-sony-*
4688 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4689
4690 * REMOVED configurations and files
4691
4692 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4693 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4694 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4695 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4696 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4697 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4698 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4699 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4700 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4701 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4702 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4703 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4704 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4705 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4706 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4707 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4708 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4709
4710 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4711
4712 * Objective-C
4713
4714 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4715 integrated into GDB.
4716
4717 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4718
4719 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4720 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4721 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4722 backtraces.
4723
4724 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4725 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4726 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4727
4728 * Hosted file I/O.
4729
4730 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4731 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4732 remote protocol documentation for details.
4733
4734 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4735
4736 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4737 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4738 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4739 ppc32 on ppc64).
4740
4741 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4742
4743 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4744 per-thread variables.
4745
4746 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4747
4748 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4749 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4750
4751 * Separate debug info.
4752
4753 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4754 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4755 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4756 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4757 and optional debug files.
4758
4759 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4760
4761 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4762 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4763 debugger.
4764
4765 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4766 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4767
4768 * Java
4769
4770 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4771 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4772 considered "useable".
4773
4774 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4775
4776 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4777 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4778 kernel.
4779
4780 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4781
4782 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4783 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4784
4785 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4786
4787 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4788 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4789 command.
4790
4791 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4792
4793 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4794 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4795
4796 * Profiling support
4797
4798 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4799 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4800 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4801 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4802 data, for more informative profiling results.
4803
4804 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4805
4806 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4807 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4808 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4809
4810 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4811 removed.
4812
4813 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4814 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4815 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4816 in a subsequent -var-update.
4817
4818 * New native configurations.
4819
4820 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4821
4822 * Multi-arched targets.
4823
4824 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4825 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4826
4827 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4828
4829 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4830 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4831 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4832 permanently REMOVED.
4833
4834 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4835 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4836 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4837 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4838 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4839 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4840 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4841 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4842 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4843 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4844 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4845 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4846
4847 * REMOVED configurations and files
4848
4849 V850EA ISA
4850 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4851 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4852 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4853 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4854 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4855 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4856 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4857 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4858 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4859 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4860 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4861 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4862 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4863
4864 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4865
4866 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4867 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4868 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4869 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4870 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4871
4872 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4873
4874 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4875
4876 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4877 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4878 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4879 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4880 shared libs like mad''.
4881
4882 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4883
4884 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4885 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4886 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4887 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4888
4889 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4890
4891 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4892 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4893 they expand.
4894
4895 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4896 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4897
4898 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4899 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4900
4901 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4902 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4903 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4904 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4905
4906 * Multi-arched targets.
4907
4908 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4909 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4910 NEC V850 v850-*-*
4911 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4912 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4913 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4914
4915 * New targets.
4916
4917 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4918
4919
4920 * New native configurations
4921
4922 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4923 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4924 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4925 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4926
4927 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4928
4929 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4930 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4931 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4932 permanently REMOVED.
4933
4934 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4935 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4936 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4937 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4938 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4939 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4940 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4941 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4942 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4943 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4944 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4945 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4946 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4947
4948 * OBSOLETE languages
4949
4950 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4951
4952 * REMOVED configurations and files
4953
4954 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4955 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4956 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4957 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4958 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4959
4960 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4961
4962 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4963
4964 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4965 commands. The default is 1024.
4966
4967 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4968
4969 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4970
4971 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4972
4973 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4974 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4975 from a file into memory (restore).
4976
4977 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4978
4979 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4980 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4981 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4982
4983 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4984
4985 * New targets.
4986
4987 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
4988
4989 * Bug fixes
4990
4991 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4992 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4993 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4994
4995 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4996 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4997 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4998
4999 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5000 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5001 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5002
5003 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5004 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5005 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5006
5007 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5008
5009 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5010
5011 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5012 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5013 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5014 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5015 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5016 (notably embedded) targets.
5017
5018 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5019
5020 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5021 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5022 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5023 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5024
5025 * New command line option
5026
5027 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5028
5029 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5030
5031 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5032 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5033 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5034 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5035 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5036 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5037 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5038 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5039 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5040 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5041
5042 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5043
5044 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5045 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5046
5047 * New native configurations
5048
5049 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5050 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5051 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5052 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5053
5054 * New targets
5055
5056 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5057
5058 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5059
5060 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5061 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5062 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5063 permanently REMOVED.
5064
5065 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5066 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5067 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5068 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5069 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5070
5071 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5072
5073 * REMOVED configurations and files
5074
5075 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5076 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5077 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5078 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5079 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5080 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5081 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5082 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5083 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5084 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5085 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5086 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5087 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5088
5089 * Changes to command line processing
5090
5091 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5092 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5093
5094 * Changes to key bindings
5095
5096 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5097
5098 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5099
5100 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5101
5102 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5103 corrupted.
5104
5105 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5106
5107 Numerous documentation fixes.
5108
5109 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5110
5111 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5112
5113 * New native configurations
5114
5115 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5116 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5117 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5118 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5119 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5120 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5121
5122 * New targets
5123
5124 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5125 CRIS cris-axis
5126 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5127
5128 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5129
5130 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5131 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5132 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5133 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5134 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5135 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5136 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5137 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5138 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5139 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5140 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5141 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5142 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5143 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5144
5145 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5146 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5147
5148 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5149 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5150 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5151 permanently REMOVED.
5152
5153 * REMOVED configurations and files
5154
5155 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5156 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5157 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5158 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5159 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5160 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5161
5162 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5163
5164 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5165 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5166 present.
5167
5168 * Other news:
5169
5170 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5171
5172 * The MI enabled by default.
5173
5174 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5175 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5176 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5177 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5178 which is now deprecated.
5179
5180 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5181
5182 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5183 main features are supported:
5184
5185 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5186
5187 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5188 extension;
5189
5190 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5191
5192 - a Pascal expression parser.
5193
5194 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5195
5196 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5197
5198 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5199
5200 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5201 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5202
5203 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5204
5205 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5206
5207 * Changes in completion.
5208
5209 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5210 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5211 users expect at the shell prompt.
5212
5213 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5214 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5215 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5216 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5217 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5218 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5219 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5220
5221 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5222
5223 * New platform-independent commands:
5224
5225 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5226 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5227 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5228
5229 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5230
5231 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5232 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5233 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5234
5235 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5236
5237 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5238 multi-threaded programs though.
5239
5240 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5241
5242 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5243
5244 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5245 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5246 supported.)
5247
5248 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5249
5250 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5251 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5252 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5253 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5254 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5255 registers.
5256
5257 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5258 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5259 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5260
5261 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5262
5263 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5264 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5265
5266 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5267 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5268 IDT.
5269
5270 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5271 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5272 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5273 a given linear address.
5274
5275 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5276 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5277 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5278
5279 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5280
5281 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5282
5283 * Changes in documentation.
5284
5285 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5286 Documentation License.
5287
5288 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5289 manual.
5290
5291 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5292
5293 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5294 manual.
5295
5296 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5297 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5298 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5299
5300 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5301
5302 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5303 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5304 contents of this file.
5305
5306 * gdba.el deleted
5307
5308 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5309
5310 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5311
5312 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5313
5314 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5315 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5316 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5317 greater level of detail.
5318
5319 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5320
5321 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5322 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5323 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5324 written.
5325
5326 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5327
5328 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5329 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5330 machines ``out of the box''.
5331
5332 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5333 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5334 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5335 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5336 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5337
5338 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5339 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5340 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5341 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5342 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5343
5344 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5345 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5346 also works.
5347
5348 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5349 GDB.
5350
5351 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5352 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5353 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5354 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5355
5356 * New native configurations
5357
5358 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5359 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5360
5361 * New targets
5362
5363 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5364 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5365 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5366 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5367
5368 * OBSOLETE configurations
5369
5370 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5371 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5372 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5373 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5374 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5375
5376 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5377 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5378 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5379 be permanently REMOVED.
5380
5381 * Gould support removed
5382
5383 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5384
5385 * New features for SVR4
5386
5387 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5388 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5389 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5390
5391 * Many C++ enhancements
5392
5393 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5394 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5395
5396 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5397
5398 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5399 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5400 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5401 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5402
5403 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5404 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5405
5406 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
5407
5408 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5409 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5410 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5411
5412 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5413 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5414
5415 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5416
5417 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5418 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5419 include ``set remote P-packet''.
5420
5421 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5422
5423 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5424 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5425 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5426
5427 * ``apropos'' command added.
5428
5429 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5430 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5431 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5432
5433 * New MI interface
5434
5435 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5436 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
5437 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5438 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5439 enabled by configuring with:
5440
5441 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5442
5443 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5444
5445 * New native configurations
5446
5447 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5448 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5449 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5450
5451 * New targets
5452
5453 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5454 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5455 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5456
5457 * OBSOLETE configurations
5458
5459 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5460
5461 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5462 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5463 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5464 be permanently REMOVED.
5465
5466 * ANSI/ISO C
5467
5468 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5469 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5470 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5471 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5472 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5473 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5474 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5475 already.
5476
5477 * Readline 2.2
5478
5479 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5480
5481 * set extension-language
5482
5483 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5484 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5485 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5486 set extension-language .c c++
5487 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5488 and their associated languages.
5489
5490 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5491
5492 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5493 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5494 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5495
5496 set processor NAME
5497
5498 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5499 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5500
5501 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5502 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5503 403 IBM PowerPC 403
5504 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5505 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5506 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5507 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5508 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5509 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5510 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5511 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5512
5513 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5514 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5515 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5516 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5517
5518 * HP-UX support
5519
5520 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5521 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5522 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5523 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5524 for xdb and dbx commands.
5525
5526 * Catchpoints
5527
5528 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5529 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5530 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5531
5532 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5533 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5534 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5535
5536 * Debugging across forks
5537
5538 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5539 in the inferior.
5540
5541 * TUI
5542
5543 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5544 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5545 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5546
5547 * GDB remote protocol additions
5548
5549 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5550 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5551 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5552 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5553
5554 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5555 full 64-bit address. The command
5556
5557 set remoteaddresssize 32
5558
5559 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5560 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5561 will be discarded.
5562
5563 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5564 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5565
5566 maint packet heythere
5567
5568 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5569 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5570 time.
5571
5572 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5573 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5574 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5575
5576 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5577
5578 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5579 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5580 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5581
5582 * mask-address variable for Mips
5583
5584 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5585 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5586 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5587
5588 * Higher serial baud rates
5589
5590 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5591 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5592 to achieve all of these rates.)
5593
5594 * i960 simulator
5595
5596 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5597 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5598
5599
5600 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5601
5602 * New native configurations
5603
5604 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5605 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5606 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5607 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5608 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5609 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5610 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5611
5612 * New targets
5613
5614 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5615 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5616 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5617 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5618 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5619 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5620 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5621 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5622 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5623 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5624 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5625
5626 * New debugging protocols
5627
5628 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5629 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5630 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5631 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5632 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5633 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5634
5635 * DWARF 2
5636
5637 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5638 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5639 information.
5640
5641 * Java frontend
5642
5643 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5644 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5645
5646 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5647
5648 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5649 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5650 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5651
5652 * Live range splitting
5653
5654 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5655 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5656 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5657
5658 * Hurd support
5659
5660 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5661 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5662
5663 * ARM Thumb support
5664
5665 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5666 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5667 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5668 accordingly.
5669
5670 * MIPS16 support
5671
5672 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5673 instruction set.
5674
5675 * Overlay support
5676
5677 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5678 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5679 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5680 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5681 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5682 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5683
5684 * info symbol
5685
5686 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5687 the symbol at the specified address.
5688
5689 * Trace support
5690
5691 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5692 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5693 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5694 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5695 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5696
5697 * MIPS simulator
5698
5699 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5700 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5701 of most MIPS variants.
5702
5703 * Sparc simulator
5704
5705 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5706 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5707 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5708
5709 * set architecture
5710
5711 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5712 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5713 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5714 the possible architectures.
5715
5716 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5717
5718 * New native configurations
5719
5720 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5721 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5722 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5723 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5724 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5725 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5726
5727 * New targets
5728
5729 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5730 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5731 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5732 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5733 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5734 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
5735 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5736
5737 * PowerPC simulator
5738
5739 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5740 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5741 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5742 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5743 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5744
5745 * Solaris 2.5
5746
5747 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5748
5749 * Windows 95/NT native
5750
5751 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5752 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5753 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5754 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5755 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5756
5757 * dont-repeat command
5758
5759 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5760 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5761 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5762 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5763
5764 * Send break instead of ^C
5765
5766 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5767 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5768 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5769
5770 * Remote protocol timeout
5771
5772 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5773 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5774 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5775
5776 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5777
5778 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5779 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5780 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5781 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5782 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5783
5784 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5785 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5786 automatically on hpux10.
5787
5788 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5789
5790 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5791
5792 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5793
5794 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5795 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5796 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5797 every character. The default value is 1050.
5798
5799 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5800
5801 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5802 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5803 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5804 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5805 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5806 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5807
5808 * Speedups for remote debugging
5809
5810 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5811 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5812 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5813
5814 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5815
5816 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5817 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5818
5819 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5820
5821 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5822
5823 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5824 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5825
5826 * Remote targets use caching
5827
5828 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5829 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5830 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5831 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5832 off' turns the the data cache off.
5833
5834 * Remote targets may have threads
5835
5836 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5837 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5838 gdb/remote.c for details.
5839
5840 * NetROM support
5841
5842 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5843 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5844 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5845 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5846 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5847 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5848 sequence is something like
5849
5850 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5851 load <prog>
5852 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5853
5854 * Macintosh host
5855
5856 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5857 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5858 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5859 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5860 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5861 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5862 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5863 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5864
5865 * Autoconf
5866
5867 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5868 but does simplify configuration and building.
5869
5870 * hpux10
5871
5872 GDB now supports hpux10.
5873
5874 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5875
5876 * New native configurations
5877
5878 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5879 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5880 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5881 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5882
5883 * New targets
5884
5885 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5886 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5887 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5888 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5889 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5890
5891 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5892
5893 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5894 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5895 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5896 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5897 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5898
5899 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5900
5901 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5902 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5903 trivial example:
5904 define adder
5905 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5906
5907 To execute the command use:
5908 adder 1 2 3
5909
5910 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5911 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5912 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5913
5914 * New `if' and `while' commands
5915
5916 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5917 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5918 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5919 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5920 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5921 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5922 if the expression is zero.
5923
5924 * Fortran source language mode
5925
5926 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5927 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5928 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5929 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5930 Fortran compilers.
5931
5932 * Better HPUX support
5933
5934 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5935 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5936 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5937 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5938 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5939
5940 adb -w a.out
5941 __dld_flags?W 0x5
5942 control-d
5943
5944 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5945 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5946
5947 adb -w a.out
5948 __dld_flags?W 0x4
5949 control-d
5950
5951 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5952 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5953 external linkage.
5954
5955 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5956 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5957
5958 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5959
5960 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5961 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5962 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5963 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5964 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5965 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5966
5967 * New DOS host serial code
5968
5969 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5970 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5971 a PC's serial port.
5972
5973 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5974
5975 * New "complete" command
5976
5977 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5978 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5979
5980 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5981
5982 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5983 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5984
5985 * Breakpoint hit counts
5986
5987 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5988 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5989 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5990 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5991 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5992 that breakpoint.
5993
5994 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5995
5996 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5997 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5998 arrays actually contain only short strings.
5999
6000 * Shared library breakpoints
6001
6002 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6003 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6004
6005 * Hardware watchpoints
6006
6007 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6008 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6009
6010 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6011
6012 * Annotations
6013
6014 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6015 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6016
6017 * Improved Irix 5 support
6018
6019 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6020
6021 * Improved HPPA support
6022
6023 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6024
6025 * New native configurations
6026
6027 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6028 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6029 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6030 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6031
6032 * New targets
6033
6034 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6035 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6036 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6037
6038 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6039
6040 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6041 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6042
6043 * Fixes
6044
6045 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6046 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6047
6048 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6049
6050 * Irix 5 is now supported
6051
6052 * HPPA support
6053
6054 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6055 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6056 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6057 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6058 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6059
6060
6061 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6062
6063 * User visible changes:
6064
6065 * Remote Debugging
6066
6067 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6068 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6069 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6070 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6071 debugging info for the mips target).
6072
6073 * DEC Alpha native support
6074
6075 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6076 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6077 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6078 Alpha-specific notes.
6079
6080 * Preliminary thread implementation
6081
6082 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6083
6084 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6085
6086 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6087 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6088 for details).
6089
6090 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6091
6092 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6093 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6094 call methods, ...etc.
6095
6096 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6097
6098 * User visible changes:
6099
6100 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6101 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6102 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6103 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6104
6105 Filename completion now works.
6106
6107 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6108 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6109 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6110
6111 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6112 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6113 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6114 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6115 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6116
6117 * DEC alpha support
6118
6119 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6120 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6121
6122
6123 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6124
6125 * Testsuite
6126
6127 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6128 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6129 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6130
6131 * C++ demangling
6132
6133 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6134 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6135 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6136 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6137 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6138
6139 * Simulators
6140
6141 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6142 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6143 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6144
6145 * New targets supported
6146
6147 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6148 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6149 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6150 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6151 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6152
6153 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6154 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6155 GO32 memory extender.
6156
6157 * New remote protocols
6158
6159 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6160
6161 * New source languages supported
6162
6163 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6164 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6165 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6166
6167
6168 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6169
6170 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6171
6172 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6173 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6174 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6175 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6176 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6177 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6178
6179 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6180
6181 * Faster and better demangling
6182
6183 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6184 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6185 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6186 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6187 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6188 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6189 symbol lookups.
6190
6191 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6192 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6193 compiler does not actually implement.
6194
6195 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6196
6197 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6198 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6199 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6200 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6201 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6202 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6203 fix.
6204
6205 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6206 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6207
6208 * Improved configure script
6209
6210 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6211 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6212 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6213 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6214
6215 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6216 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6217 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6218 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6219 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6220 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6221
6222 * Documentation improvements
6223
6224 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6225 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6226 before submitting changes.
6227
6228 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6229 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6230 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6231 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6232 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6233
6234 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6235 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6236 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6237 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6238 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6239 around this problem.
6240
6241 * New features
6242
6243 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6244 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6245 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6246 the target program.
6247
6248 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6249 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6250
6251 * New native hosts supported
6252
6253 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6254 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6255
6256 * New targets supported
6257
6258 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6259
6260 * New file formats supported
6261
6262 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6263 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6264
6265 * Major bug fixes
6266
6267 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6268
6269 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6270 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6271
6272 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6273 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6274 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6275
6276 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6277 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6278
6279 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6280 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6281 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6282 libraries.
6283
6284 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6285 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6286 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6287 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6288 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6289
6290 * Internal improvements
6291
6292 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6293 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6294
6295 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6296 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6297 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6298 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6299 shared code that handles any of them.
6300
6301 * New command line options
6302
6303 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6304
6305 * Mmalloc licensing
6306
6307 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6308 General Public License.
6309
6310 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6311
6312 * Host/native/target split
6313
6314 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6315 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6316 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6317 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6318 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6319
6320 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6321 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6322 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6323 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6324 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6325 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6326 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6327
6328 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6329 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6330 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6331
6332 * New hosts supported
6333
6334 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6335 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6336 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6337
6338 * New targets supported
6339
6340 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6341 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6342
6343 * New native hosts supported
6344
6345 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6346 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6347 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6348
6349 * New file formats supported
6350
6351 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6352 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6353 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6354
6355 * New commands
6356
6357 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6358 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6359 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6360
6361 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6362
6363 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6364 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6365 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6366 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6367
6368 * C++ improvements
6369
6370 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6371 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6372 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6373
6374 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6375
6376 * Major bug fixes
6377
6378 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6379 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6380 by the compiler.
6381
6382 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6383 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6384
6385 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6386 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6387 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6388 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6389 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6390 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6391
6392 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6393 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6394 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6395 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6396
6397 * AMD 29k support
6398
6399 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6400 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6401 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6402 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6403 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6404
6405 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6406 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6407 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6408 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6409
6410 * Remote interfaces
6411
6412 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6413 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6414 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6415 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6416 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6417 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6418 each instruction being stepped through.
6419
6420 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6421 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6422
6423 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6424 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6425 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6426 processor with a serial port.
6427
6428 * Configuration
6429
6430 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6431 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6432 supported, and what files each one uses.
6433
6434 * Library changes
6435
6436 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6437 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6438 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6439 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6440
6441 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6442 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6443 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6444 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6445
6446 * Documentation
6447
6448 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6449 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6450 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6451 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6452 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6453 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6454
6455 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6456
6457
6458 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6459
6460 * Better support for C++ function names
6461
6462 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6463 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6464 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6465 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6466 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6467
6468 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6469 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6470 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6471 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6472 for the list of formats.
6473
6474 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6475
6476 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6477 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6478 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6479 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6480 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6481 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6482 this problem.)
6483
6484 * New 'maintenance' command
6485
6486 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6487 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6488 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6489
6490 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6491 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6492 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6493 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6494 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6495 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6496
6497 The following commands are new:
6498
6499 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6500 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6501 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6502
6503 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6504
6505 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6506 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6507 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6508 read after argv processing.
6509
6510 * New hosts supported
6511
6512 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6513
6514 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6515
6516 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6517 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6518 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6519 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6520 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6521 It costs extra.
6522
6523 * New targets supported
6524
6525 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6526
6527 * More smarts about finding #include files
6528
6529 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6530 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6531 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6532 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6533 the one that contains your sources.
6534
6535 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6536 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6537 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6538
6539 * Interesting infernals change
6540
6541 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6542 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6543 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6544 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6545
6546 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6547
6548 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6549 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6550 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6551
6552 See the ChangeLog for details.
6553
6554 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6555
6556 * New machines supported (host and target)
6557
6558 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6559
6560 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6561
6562 * New malloc package
6563
6564 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6565 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6566 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6567 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6568 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6569 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6570
6571 * info proc
6572
6573 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6574 'help info proc' for details.
6575
6576 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6577
6578 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6579 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6580 possible.
6581
6582 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6583
6584 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6585 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6586 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6587 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6588 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6589 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6590
6591 * Cross byte order fixes
6592
6593 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6594 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6595
6596 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6597
6598 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6599 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6600 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6601 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6602 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6603 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6604 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6605 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6606 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6607 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6608
6609 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6610 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6611 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6612 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6613
6614 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6615 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6616 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6617 use is:
6618
6619 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6620
6621 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6622 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6623 shared across multiple host platforms.
6624
6625 * longjmp() handling
6626
6627 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6628 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6629 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6630 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6631
6632 * Solaris 2.0
6633
6634 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6635 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6636 reading symbols.
6637
6638 * Bug fixes
6639
6640 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6641 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6642 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6643
6644 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6645
6646 * New machines supported (host and target)
6647
6648 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6649 (except core files)
6650 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6651 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6652
6653 * New machines supported (target)
6654
6655 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6656
6657 * C++ support
6658
6659 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6660 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6661 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6662
6663 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6664 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6665 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6666 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6667 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6668 released.
6669
6670 * New features for SVR4
6671
6672 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6673 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6674 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6675
6676 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6677 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6678 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6679
6680 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6681 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6682
6683 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6684
6685 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6686 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6687 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6688 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6689 same code linked statically.
6690
6691 * New Getopt
6692
6693 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6694 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6695 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6696 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6697 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6698 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6699
6700 * Bugs fixed
6701
6702 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6703 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6704 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6705
6706
6707 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6708
6709 * New machines supported (host and target)
6710
6711 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6712 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6713 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6714
6715 * Almost SCO Unix support
6716
6717 We had hoped to support:
6718 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6719 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6720 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6721 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6722
6723 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6724
6725 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6726 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6727 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6728 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6729 reqired (if any).
6730
6731 * New Readline
6732
6733 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6734 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6735 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6736
6737 * Bugs fixed
6738
6739 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6740 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6741 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6742
6743 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6744
6745 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6746 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6747 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6748
6749 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6750 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6751 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6752 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6753 version 2.
6754
6755 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6756 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6757 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6758 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6759 situation somewhat.
6760
6761 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6762 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6763 methods.
6764
6765 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6766 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6767 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6768
6769
6770 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6771
6772 * Improved configuration
6773
6774 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6775 Porting BFD is simpler.
6776
6777 * Stepping improved
6778
6779 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6780 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6781 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6782 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6783
6784 * Bug fixing
6785
6786 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6787
6788 * New host supported (not target)
6789
6790 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6791
6792
6793 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6794
6795 * Multiple source language support
6796
6797 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6798 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6799 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6800 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6801 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6802 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6803
6804 * GDB and Modula-2
6805
6806 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6807 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6808 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6809 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6810
6811 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6812 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6813 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6814
6815 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6816 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6817
6818 * set write on/off
6819
6820 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6821 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6822 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6823 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6824 effect immediately.
6825
6826 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6827
6828 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6829 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6830 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6831 examining core files.
6832
6833 * set listsize
6834
6835 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6836 The default is 10.
6837
6838 * New machines supported (host and target)
6839
6840 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6841 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6842 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6843
6844 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6845
6846 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6847
6848 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6849
6850 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6851 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6852 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6853
6854 * New remote interfaces
6855
6856 AMD 29000 Adapt
6857 AMD 29000 Minimon
6858
6859
6860 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6861
6862 * New Facilities
6863
6864 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6865
6866 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6867 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6868 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6869 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6870 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6871 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6872 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6873 stub on the target system.
6874
6875 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6876
6877 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6878 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6879 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6880
6881 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6882 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6883
6884
6885 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6886
6887 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6888 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6889
6890 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6891 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6892 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6893
6894 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6895 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6896 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6897 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6898
6899 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6900 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6901 it is already running. Default is ON.
6902
6903 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6904 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6905 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6906 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6907 Default is ON.
6908
6909 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6910 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6911 or the value of the environment variable
6912 GDBHISTFILE.
6913
6914 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6915 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6916 HISTSIZE.
6917
6918 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6919 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6920 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6921
6922 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6923 history expansion will be performed on
6924 command line input. The default is OFF.
6925
6926 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6927 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6928 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6929
6930 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6931 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6932 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6933 variable TERM.
6934
6935 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6936 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6937 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6938 variable TERM.
6939
6940 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6941 ``set width'' instead.
6942
6943 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6944 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6945 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6946 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6947
6948 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6949 is OFF.
6950
6951 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6952 "raw" form if off.
6953
6954 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6955 like instructions.
6956
6957 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6958
6959
6960 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6961
6962 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6963 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6964 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6965 window.
6966
6967
6968 * Support for Shared Libraries
6969
6970 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6971 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6972 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6973 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6974 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6975 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6976 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6977 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6978
6979 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6980 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6981 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6982
6983 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6984
6985
6986 * Watchpoints
6987
6988 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6989 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6990 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6991 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6992 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6993 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6994
6995 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6996
6997 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6998
6999 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7000 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7001 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7002
7003
7004 * C++ multiple inheritance
7005
7006 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7007 for C++ programs.
7008
7009 * C++ exception handling
7010
7011 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7012 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7013 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7014 handler's context).
7015
7016 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7017 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7018 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7019
7020 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7021 current stack frame.
7022
7023
7024 * Minor command changes
7025
7026 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7027 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7028 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7029
7030 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7031 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7032 frames without printing.
7033
7034 * New directory command
7035
7036 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7037 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7038 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7039 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7040 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7041
7042 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7043
7044 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7045 for more details.
7046
7047 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7048 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7049 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7050 where the program that you are debugging will run.
This page took 0.188914 seconds and 4 git commands to generate.