x86-64: accept 64-bit LFS/LGS/LSS forms with suffix or operand size specifier
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.3
5
6 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
7
8 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
9 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
10 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
11 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
12 such as in system-wide init files.
13
14 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
15 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
16 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
17 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
18 current GDB settings.
19
20 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
21 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
22 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
23 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
24
25 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
26 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
27 postfix [PAC].
28
29 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
30 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
31
32 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
33 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
34 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
35
36 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
37 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
38 commands.
39
40 * Command names can now use the . character.
41
42 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
43
44 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
45 messages.
46
47 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
48
49 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
50 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
51
52 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
53 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
54 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
55
56 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
57
58 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
59 not visible in the current scope.
60
61 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
62 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
63 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
64 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
65 compiled with support for that language.
66
67 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
68 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
69 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
70
71 * Python API
72
73 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
74 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
75 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
76 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
77 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
78
79 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
80 type was defined in.
81
82 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
83 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
84 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
85 is given.
86
87 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
88 symbols with static linkage.
89
90 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
91 all static symbols with static linkage.
92
93 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
94 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
95
96 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
97 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
98
99 * New commands
100
101 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
102 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
103 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
104 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
105 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
106 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
107 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
108
109 define-prefix COMMAND
110 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
111
112 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
113 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
114 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
115 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
116 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
117 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
118 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
119 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
120 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
121 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
122 of array elements to print.
123
124 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
125 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
126
127 set may-call-functions [on|off]
128 show may-call-functions
129 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
130 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
131 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
132 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
133 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
134 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
135 in the program.
136
137 set print finish [on|off]
138 show print finish
139 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
140 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
141 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
142 default is `on'.
143
144 set print max-depth
145 show print max-depth
146 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
147 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
148 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
149 the old behavior back.
150
151 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
152 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
153 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
154
155 set style title foreground COLOR
156 set style title background COLOR
157 set style title intensity VALUE
158 Control the styling of titles.
159
160 set style highlight foreground COLOR
161 set style highlight background COLOR
162 set style highlight intensity VALUE
163 Control the styling of highlightings.
164
165 maint set worker-threads
166 maint show worker-threads
167 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
168 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
169 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
170 the names of linker symbols.
171
172 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
173 set style tui-border background COLOR
174 Control the styling of TUI borders.
175
176 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
177 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
178 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
179
180 maint set test-settings KIND
181 maint show test-settings KIND
182 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
183 infrastructure.
184
185 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
186 maint show tui-resize-message
187 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
188 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
189 TUI.
190
191 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
192 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
193 show print frame-info
194 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
195 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
196 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
197 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
198
199 set tui compact-source
200 show tui compact-source
201
202 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
203 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
204 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
205 line numbers from the source.
206
207 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
208 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
209 no REGEXP is given.
210
211 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
212 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
213 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
214 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
215 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
216 matches against the function name.
217
218 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
219 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
220 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
221 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
222 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
223 against the variable name.
224
225 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
226 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
227 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
228 "set debug remote".
229 The default is 512 bytes.
230
231 * Changed commands
232
233 help
234 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
235 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
236 command names.
237
238 apropos [-v] REGEXP
239 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
240 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
241 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
242 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
243 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
244
245 printf
246 eval
247 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
248 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
249 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
250 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
251
252 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
253 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
254 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
255 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
256 parts of the files.
257
258 show style
259 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
260 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
261 the user visualize the different styles.
262
263 set print frame-arguments
264 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
265 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
266
267 set print raw-frame-arguments
268 show print raw-frame-arguments
269
270 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
271 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
272 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
273 release.
274
275 maint test-options require-delimiter
276 maint test-options unknown-is-error
277 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
278 maint show test-options-completion-result
279 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
280 framework.
281
282 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
283 These commands are now case-sensitive.
284
285 * New command options, command completion
286
287 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
288 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
289 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
290 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
291 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
292 number of commands got support for new command options in this
293 release:
294
295 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
296 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
297 set by "set print" subcommands:
298
299 -address [on|off]
300 -array [on|off]
301 -array-indexes [on|off]
302 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
303 -null-stop [on|off]
304 -object [on|off]
305 -pretty [on|off]
306 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
307 -static-members [on|off]
308 -symbol [on|off]
309 -union [on|off]
310 -vtbl [on|off]
311
312 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
313 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
314 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
315 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
316
317 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
318 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
319 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
320
321 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
322 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
323 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
324 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
325 |location-and-address|short-location
326 -past-main [on|off]
327 -past-entry [on|off]
328
329 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
330 exposed as command options too:
331
332 -full
333 -no-filters
334 -hide
335
336 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
337 support the following options:
338
339 -past-main [on|off]
340 -past-entry [on|off]
341
342 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
343 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
344
345 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
346 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
347 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
348 like for example:
349
350 (gdb) p -r -p -o 0 -- *myptr
351
352 The above is equivalent to:
353
354 (gdb) print -raw -pretty -object off -- *myptr
355
356 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
357 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
358 variables" and "info functions".
359
360 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
361 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
362 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
363 from the results.
364
365 * Completion improvements
366
367 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
368 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
369 abbreviated.
370
371 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
372 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
373 commands.
374
375 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
376 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
377 completes on filenames.
378
379 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
380 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
381
382 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
383
384 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
385 elements unlimited".
386
387 * New MI commands
388
389 -complete
390 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
391 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
392 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
393
394 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
395 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
396 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
397
398 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
399 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
400 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
401
402 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
403 modules' command.
404
405 * Other MI changes
406
407 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
408
409 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
410 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
411 the following commands and events:
412
413 - -break-insert
414 - -break-info
415 - =breakpoint-created
416 - =breakpoint-modified
417
418 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
419 this behavior with previous MI versions.
420
421 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
422 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
423 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
424 present.
425
426 * Testsuite
427
428 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
429 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
430 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
431 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
432
433 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
434
435 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
436 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
437
438 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
439
440 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
441 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
442
443 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
444 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
445 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
446
447 * Removed targets and native configurations
448
449 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
450 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
451 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
452
453 * New Simulators
454
455 TI PRU pru-*-elf
456
457 * Removed targets and native configurations
458
459 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
460 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
461
462 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
463
464 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
465 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
466 HTM registers.
467
468 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
469 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
470 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
471 and operators.
472
473 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
474 (the C++ plug-in).
475
476 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
477 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
478 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
479
480 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
481 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
482
483 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
484 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
485 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
486 in the GDB user manual.
487
488 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
489 executed failed.
490
491 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
492
493 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
494 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
495 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
496 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
497 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
498 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
499 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
500 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
501 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
502 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
503 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
504 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
505
506 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
507 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
508 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
509 information.
510
511 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
512 lucid.
513
514 * New commands
515
516 set debug compile-cplus-types
517 show debug compile-cplus-types
518 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
519 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
520 for other languages.
521
522 set debug skip
523 show debug skip
524 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
525 displayed.
526
527 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
528 Apply a command to some frames.
529 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
530 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
531
532 taas COMMAND
533 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
534 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
535
536 faas COMMAND
537 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
538 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
539
540 tfaas COMMAND
541 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
542 output).
543 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
544
545 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
546 maint show dwarf unwinders
547 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
548
549 info proc files
550 Display a list of open files for a process.
551
552 * Changed commands
553
554 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
555 These commands all now take a frame specification which
556 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
557 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
558 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
559 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
560 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
561
562 target remote FILENAME
563 target extended-remote FILENAME
564 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
565 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
566
567 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
568 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
569 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
570 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
571 These commands can now print only the searched entities
572 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
573 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
574 printing headers or informations messages.
575
576 info functions
577 info types
578 info variables
579 rbreak
580 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
581 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
582 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
583 the shown entities.
584
585 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
586 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
587 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
588 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
589
590 set tui tab-width NCHARS
591 show tui tab-width NCHARS
592 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
593
594 set style enabled [on|off]
595 show style enabled
596 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
597 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
598
599 set style sources [on|off]
600 show style sources
601 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
602 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
603 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
604
605 set style filename foreground COLOR
606 set style filename background COLOR
607 set style filename intensity VALUE
608 Control the styling of file names.
609
610 set style function foreground COLOR
611 set style function background COLOR
612 set style function intensity VALUE
613 Control the styling of function names.
614
615 set style variable foreground COLOR
616 set style variable background COLOR
617 set style variable intensity VALUE
618 Control the styling of variable names.
619
620 set style address foreground COLOR
621 set style address background COLOR
622 set style address intensity VALUE
623 Control the styling of addresses.
624
625 * MI changes
626
627 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
628 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
629 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
630 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
631 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
632
633 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
634 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
635
636 * New native configurations
637
638 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
639 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
640
641 * New targets
642
643 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
644 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
645 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
646 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
647 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
648 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
649
650 * Removed targets
651
652 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
653 before Windows XP.
654
655 * Python API
656
657 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
658
659 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
660 space associated to that inferior.
661
662 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
663 of objfiles associated to that program space.
664
665 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
666 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
667 the gdb core.
668
669 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
670 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
671 correct and did not work properly.
672
673 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
674 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
675
676 * Configure changes
677
678 --enable-ubsan
679
680 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
681 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
682 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
683 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
684 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
685
686 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
687
688 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
689 for the MIPS target.
690
691 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
692 offset to all sections.
693
694 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
695 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
696 address of individual sections using '-s'.
697
698 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
699 (address of the text section).
700
701 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
702 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
703 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
704 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
705 default.
706
707 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
708 for the rest of the current command.
709
710 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
711 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
712
713 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
714 files created on FreeBSD systems.
715
716 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
717 alignof.
718
719 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
720 the vector length while the process is running.
721
722 * New commands
723
724 set debug fbsd-nat
725 show debug fbsd-nat
726 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
727
728 set|show varsize-limit
729 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
730 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
731 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
732
733 set|show record btrace cpu
734 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
735 branch trace decode.
736
737 maint check libthread-db
738 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
739 library
740
741 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
742 maint show check-libthread-db
743 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
744 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
745 perform such checks.
746
747 * Python API
748
749 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
750
751 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
752 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
753
754 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
755
756 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
757 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
758 of convenience variables.
759
760 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
761 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
762 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
763
764 * New targets
765
766 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
767
768 * Removed targets and native configurations
769
770 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
771 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
772 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
773 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
774
775 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
776
777 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
778 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
779 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
780 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
781 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
782 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
783 reported.
784
785 * Configure changes
786
787 --enable-codesign=CERT
788 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
789 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
790 gdb to work properly.
791
792 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
793 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
794
795 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
796
797 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
798 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
799 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
800
801 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
802 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
803
804 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
805 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
806 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
807 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
808 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
809
810 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
811 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
812 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
813 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
814
815 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
816 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
817
818 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
819 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
820 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
821
822 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
823 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
824 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
825
826 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
827 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
828 environment" command.
829
830 * Completion improvements
831
832 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
833 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
834 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
835 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
836 correctly:
837
838 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
839 (gdb) b function(int)
840
841 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
842 C++ anonymous namespaces:
843
844 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
845 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
846 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
847 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
848
849 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
850 completion support, that better understands what you're
851 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
852 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
853 setting a breakpoint.
854
855 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
856
857 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
858
859 * New command line options (gcore)
860
861 -a
862 Dump all memory mappings.
863
864 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
865
866 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
867 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
868 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
869
870 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
871
872 A::B::func()
873 B::func()
874
875 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
876 on both symbols.
877
878 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
879 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
880 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
881 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
882 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
883 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
884 a breakpoint from Python.
885
886 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
887
888 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
889 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
890 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
891
892 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
893
894 function[abi:cxx11](int)
895 ^^^^^^^^^^^
896
897 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
898 no tag, like:
899
900 (gdb) b function(int)
901
902 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
903
904 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
905
906 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
907
908 * Python Scripting
909
910 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
911 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
912 description of these.
913
914 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
915 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
916 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
917
918 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
919 manual for a further description of this feature.
920
921
922 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
923
924 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
925 specified initial working directory.
926
927 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
928 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
929
930 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
931 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
932
933 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
934 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
935
936 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
937 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
938 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
939 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
940 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
941
942 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
943 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
944 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
945
946 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
947 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
948 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
949 in the *stopped notification.
950
951 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
952 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
953
954 * New remote packets
955
956 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
957 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
958 the inferior when starting it.
959
960 QEnvironmentUnset
961 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
962 before starting the remote inferior.
963
964 QEnvironmentReset
965 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
966 user-set environment variables should be unset).
967
968 QStartupWithShell
969 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
970
971 QSetWorkingDir
972 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
973 working directory.
974
975 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
976 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
977
978 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
979 filter the tests to be run.
980
981 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
982 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
983
984 * New commands
985
986 set|show cwd
987 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
988
989 set|show compile-gcc
990 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
991 with the 'compile' commands.
992
993 set debug separate-debug-file
994 show debug separate-debug-file
995 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
996
997 set dump-excluded-mappings
998 show dump-excluded-mappings
999 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1000 dumped when generating a core file.
1001
1002 maint info selftests
1003 List the registered selftests.
1004
1005 starti
1006 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1007
1008 set|show debug or1k
1009 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1010
1011 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1012 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1013 type printer will show.
1014
1015 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1016 `o' for nexti.
1017
1018 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1019
1020 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1021 'int'.
1022
1023 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1024 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1025 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1026 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1027
1028 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1029 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1030 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1031 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1032 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1033 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1034
1035 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1036 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1037 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1038
1039 (gdb) p var
1040 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1041 (gdb) p (float) var
1042 $3 = 3.14
1043
1044 * New native configurations
1045
1046 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1047 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1048
1049 * New targets
1050
1051 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1052 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1053 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1054
1055 * Removed targets and native configurations
1056
1057 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1058
1059 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1060
1061 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1062 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1063 available in future Intel CPUs.
1064
1065 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1066
1067 * Python Scripting
1068
1069 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1070 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1071
1072 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1073 instructions.
1074
1075 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1076
1077 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1078
1079 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1080 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1081 removed.
1082
1083 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1084
1085 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1086 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1087
1088 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1089
1090 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1091 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1092 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1093 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1094 features.
1095
1096 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1097
1098 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1099 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1100 debugger.
1101
1102 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1103
1104 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1105 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1106
1107 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1108
1109 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1110
1111 define mycommand
1112 set $i = 0
1113 while $i < $argc
1114 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1115 set $i = $i + 1
1116 end
1117 end
1118
1119 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1120
1121 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1122 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1123
1124 * New native configurations
1125
1126 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1127
1128 * New targets
1129
1130 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1131 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1132
1133 * Removed targets and native configurations
1134
1135 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1136 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1137
1138 * New commands
1139
1140 flash-erase
1141 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1142
1143 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1144 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1145
1146 * New options
1147
1148 set disassembler-options
1149 show disassembler-options
1150 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1151 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1152 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1153 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1154 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1155
1156 * New MI commands
1157
1158 -target-flash-erase
1159 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1160 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1161
1162 -file-list-shared-libraries
1163 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1164 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1165
1166 -catch-handlers
1167 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1168 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1169
1170 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1171
1172 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1173
1174 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1175 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1176 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1177 option will be removed in a future release.
1178
1179 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1180 GDB connection.
1181
1182 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1183 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1184
1185 (gdb) bt
1186 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1187 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1188 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1189 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1190 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1191 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1192 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1193 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1194 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1195
1196 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1197 arrays of dynamic types.
1198
1199 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1200 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1201 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1202 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1203 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1204 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1205
1206 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1207 descriptions.
1208
1209 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1210 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1211 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1212
1213 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1214
1215 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1216 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1217 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1218 signal received and code location.
1219
1220 For example:
1221
1222 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1223 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1224 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1225 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1226
1227 * Rust language support.
1228 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1229 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1230 Rust.
1231
1232 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1233
1234 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1235 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1236 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1237 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1238 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1239 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1240 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1241 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1242 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1243 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1244 line.
1245
1246 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1247
1248 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1249 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1250
1251 * New commands
1252
1253 skip -file file
1254 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1255 skip -function function
1256 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1257 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1258 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1259 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1260
1261 maint info line-table REGEXP
1262 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
1263
1264 maint selftest
1265 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1266
1267 new-ui INTERP TTY
1268 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1269 using the TTY file for input/output.
1270
1271 * Python Scripting
1272
1273 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1274 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1275 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1276 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1277 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1278
1279 signal-event EVENTID
1280 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1281 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1282 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1283 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1284 signalling an event.
1285
1286 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1287 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1288 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1289
1290 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1291 been removed:
1292
1293 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1294 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1295 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1296 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1297 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1298 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1299
1300 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1301 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1302 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1303 bytecode into native code.
1304
1305 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1306 recording. For example:
1307
1308 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1309
1310 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1311
1312 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1313
1314 * New targets
1315
1316 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1317
1318 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1319
1320 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1321
1322 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1323
1324 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1325 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1326 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1327
1328 (gdb) info threads
1329 Id Target Id Frame
1330 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1331 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1332 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1333 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1334
1335 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1336 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1337 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1338
1339 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1340 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1341 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1342
1343 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1344 IDs.
1345
1346 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1347 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1348
1349 (gdb) thread 2.1
1350 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1351 (gdb)
1352
1353 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1354 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1355 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1356 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1357 threads 2.*".
1358
1359 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1360 all threads.
1361
1362 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1363 the current thread.
1364
1365 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1366 current inferior.
1367
1368 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1369 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1370 example:
1371
1372 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1373 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1374
1375 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1376
1377 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1378
1379 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1380 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1381
1382 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1383 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1384 clients.
1385
1386 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1387 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1388 at the same time.
1389
1390 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1391 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1392 into native code.
1393
1394 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1395
1396 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1397 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1398 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1399
1400 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1401 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1402
1403 * New commands
1404
1405 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1406 maint show target-non-stop
1407 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1408 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1409 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1410
1411 maint set bfd-sharing
1412 maint show bfd-sharing
1413 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1414
1415 set debug bfd-cache
1416 show debug bfd-cache
1417 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1418
1419 set debug fbsd-lwp
1420 show debug fbsd-lwp
1421 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1422
1423 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1424 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1425 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1426
1427 set remote thread-events
1428 show remote thread-events
1429 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1430
1431 set ada print-signatures on|off
1432 show ada print-signatures"
1433 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1434 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
1435
1436 set max-value-size
1437 show max-value-size
1438 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1439 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1440 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1441
1442 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1443 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1444 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1445 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1446 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1447 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1448
1449 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1450 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1451
1452 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1453 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1454
1455 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1456
1457 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1458 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1459 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1460 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1461 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1462 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1463
1464 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1465 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1466
1467 catch handlers
1468 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1469
1470 * New remote packets
1471
1472 exec stop reason
1473 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1474
1475 exec-events feature in qSupported
1476 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1477 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1478 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1479 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1480
1481 vCtrlC
1482 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1483 non-stop mode.
1484
1485 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1486 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1487
1488 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1489 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1490
1491 QThreadEvents
1492 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1493 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1494 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1495 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1496 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1497 stop for that same thread.
1498
1499 N stop reply
1500 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1501 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1502 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1503
1504 QCatchSyscalls
1505 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1506 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1507
1508 syscall_entry stop reason
1509 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1510
1511 syscall_return stop reason
1512 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1513
1514 * Extended-remote exec events
1515
1516 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1517 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1518 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1519
1520 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1521 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1522 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1523
1524 * Thread names in remote protocol
1525
1526 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1527 thread.
1528
1529 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1530
1531 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1532 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1533 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1534 fork and exec catchpoints.
1535
1536 * Remote syscall events
1537
1538 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1539 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1540
1541 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1542 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1543 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1544
1545 * MI changes
1546
1547 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1548 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1549 left.
1550
1551 * Python Scripting
1552
1553 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1554 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1555 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1556 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1557 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1558 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1559
1560 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1561
1562 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1563 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1564 including advance SIMD instructions.
1565
1566 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1567
1568 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1569 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1570 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1571 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1572 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1573 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1574 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1575
1576 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1577 cpu information :
1578 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1579
1580 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1581 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1582 remote serial I/O.
1583
1584 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1585 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1586 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1587
1588 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1589 is now available on all platforms.
1590
1591 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1592 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1593 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1594 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1595 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1596 backward compatibility.
1597
1598 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1599 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1600 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1601 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1602
1603 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1604 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1605 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1606 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1607 packets" below.
1608
1609 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1610
1611 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1612
1613 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1614 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1615 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1616 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1617 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1618 See "New remote packets" below.
1619
1620 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1621 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1622
1623 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1624 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1625 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1626 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1627 are ignored.
1628
1629 * Guile Scripting
1630
1631 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1632
1633 * Python Scripting
1634
1635 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1636 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1637 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1638 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1639 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1640 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1641 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1642 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1643 "const" version of the value respectively.
1644
1645 * New commands
1646
1647 maint print symbol-cache
1648 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1649
1650 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1651 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1652
1653 maint flush-symbol-cache
1654 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1655
1656 record btrace bts
1657 record bts
1658 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1659
1660 compile print
1661 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1662
1663 tui enable
1664 tui disable
1665 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1666
1667 show mpx bound
1668 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1669 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1670
1671 record btrace pt
1672 record pt
1673 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1674
1675 maint info btrace
1676 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1677
1678 maint btrace packet-history
1679 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1680
1681 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1682 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1683
1684 maint btrace clear
1685 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1686 anew by the next "record" command.
1687
1688 * New options
1689
1690 set debug dwarf-die
1691 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1692 show debug dwarf-die
1693 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1694
1695 set debug dwarf-read
1696 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1697 show debug dwarf-read
1698 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1699
1700 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1701 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1702 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1703 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1704
1705 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1706 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1707 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1708 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1709
1710 set debug dwarf-line
1711 show debug dwarf-line
1712 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1713
1714 set max-completions
1715 show max-completions
1716 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1717 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1718 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1719 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1720
1721 set history remove-duplicates
1722 show history remove-duplicates
1723 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1724
1725 maint set symbol-cache-size
1726 maint show symbol-cache-size
1727 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1728
1729 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1730 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1731 BTS format.
1732 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1733 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1734
1735 set debug linux-namespaces
1736 show debug linux-namespaces
1737 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1738
1739 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1740 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1741 Intel Processor Trace format.
1742 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1743 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1744
1745 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1746 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1747 packet history.
1748
1749 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1750 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1751
1752 * Python/Guile scripting
1753
1754 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1755 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1756
1757 * New remote packets
1758
1759 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1760 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1761
1762 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1763 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1764
1765 Qbtrace:pt
1766 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1767 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1768 qSupported query.
1769
1770 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1771 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1772 Trace format.
1773
1774 swbreak stop reason
1775 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1776 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1777 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1778 mode operation.
1779
1780 hwbreak stop reason
1781 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1782 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1783
1784 vFile:fstat:
1785 Return information about files on the remote system.
1786
1787 qXfer:exec-file:read
1788 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1789 create a process running on the remote system.
1790
1791 vFile:setfs:
1792 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1793 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1794 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1795 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1796
1797 fork stop reason
1798 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1799
1800 vfork stop reason
1801 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1802
1803 vforkdone stop reason
1804 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1805 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1806
1807 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1808 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1809 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1810 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1811 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1812 whether these features are enabled.
1813
1814 * Extended-remote fork events
1815
1816 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1817 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1818 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1819 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1820
1821 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1822 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1823 the btrace record target.
1824 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1825
1826 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1827 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1828
1829 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1830 targets.
1831
1832 * Removed command line options
1833
1834 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1835
1836 * Removed targets and native configurations
1837
1838 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1839 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1840
1841 * New configure options
1842
1843 --with-intel-pt
1844 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1845 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1846
1847 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1848 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1849 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1850 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1851
1852 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1853
1854 * Python Scripting
1855
1856 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1857
1858 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1859
1860 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1861
1862 * Python Scripting
1863
1864 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1865 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1866 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1867 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1868 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1869 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1870 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1871 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1872 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1873 selecting a new file to debug.
1874 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1875 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1876
1877 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1878 inferior.
1879
1880 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1881 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1882 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1883 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1884
1885 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1886
1887 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1888 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1889 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1890 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1891
1892 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1893 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1894 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1895 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1896 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1897 interface with this new feature are:
1898
1899 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1900 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1901
1902 * New commands
1903
1904 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1905 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1906 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1907 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1908 as "maint demangler-warning".
1909
1910 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1911 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1912
1913 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1914 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1915 scripts.
1916
1917 maint print user-registers
1918 List all currently available "user" registers.
1919
1920 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1921 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1922 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1923
1924 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1925 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1926 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1927 provided.
1928
1929 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1930 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1931 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1932 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1933 at resume time.
1934
1935 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1936 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1937 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1938 switched threads meanwhile.
1939
1940 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1941
1942 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1943 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1944 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1945 is now the default mode.
1946
1947 * New options
1948
1949 set debug symbol-lookup
1950 show debug symbol-lookup
1951 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1952
1953 * MI changes
1954
1955 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1956 inferiors that have exited.
1957
1958 * New targets
1959
1960 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1961
1962 * Removed targets
1963
1964 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1965
1966 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1967 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1968 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1969 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1970 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1971
1972 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1973 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1974 its alias "share", instead.
1975
1976 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1977
1978 * New command line options
1979
1980 -D data-directory
1981 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1982
1983 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1984 as specified in ISO C99.
1985
1986 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1987 with or without disassembly.
1988
1989 * Guile scripting
1990
1991 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1992 available is determined at configure time.
1993 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1994 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1995
1996 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1997
1998 guile [code]
1999 gu [code]
2000 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2001
2002 guile-repl
2003 gr
2004 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2005
2006 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2007 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2008
2009 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2010 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2011
2012 * New options
2013
2014 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2015 show print symbol-loading
2016 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2017 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2018 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2019 becomes less useful.
2020
2021 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2022 show guile print-stack
2023 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2024
2025 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2026 show auto-load guile-scripts
2027 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2028
2029 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2030 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2031 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2032 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2033 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2034 usage of this option.
2035
2036 set auto-connect-native-target
2037
2038 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2039 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2040 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2041
2042 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2043 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2044 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2045
2046 maint set target-async (on|off)
2047 maint show target-async
2048 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2049 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2050 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2051 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2052
2053 set mi-async (on|off)
2054 show mi-async
2055 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2056 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2057
2058 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2059 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2060
2061 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2062 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2063 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2064 "set target-async on" command.
2065
2066 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2067
2068 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2069 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2070 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2071 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2072 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2073
2074 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2075 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2076 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2077
2078 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2079 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2080 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2081 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2082 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2083 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2084 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2085
2086 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2087 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2088
2089 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2090 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2091 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2092
2093 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2094 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2095 memory or registers.
2096
2097 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2098
2099 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2100 remote. It now works with all targets.
2101
2102 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2103 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2104 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2105 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2106 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2107 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2108 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2109 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2110 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2111 target-stack".
2112
2113 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2114 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2115 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2116
2117 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2118
2119 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2120 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2121 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2122
2123 * New remote packets
2124
2125 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2126 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2127 branch trace incrementally.
2128
2129 * Python Scripting
2130
2131 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2132 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2133 available.
2134 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2135 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2136 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2137 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2138 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2139
2140 * New targets
2141 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2142
2143 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2144 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2145 its alias "share", instead.
2146
2147 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2148 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2149 instead.
2150
2151 * MI changes
2152
2153 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2154 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2155 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2156 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2157 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2158 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2159 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2160 commands and CLI execution commands.
2161
2162 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2163
2164 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2165 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2166 recording has been added.
2167
2168 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2169
2170 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2171 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2172
2173 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2174 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2175 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2176 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2177 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2178 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2179 "void".
2180
2181 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2182
2183 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2184
2185 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2186 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2187 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2188 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2189
2190 (gdb) p $rax
2191 $1 = <not saved>
2192
2193 (gdb) info registers rax
2194 rax <not saved>
2195
2196 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2197 "*value not available*".
2198
2199 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2200 to binaries.
2201
2202 * Python scripting
2203
2204 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2205 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2206 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2207 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2208 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2209 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2210
2211 * New targets
2212
2213 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2214 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2215 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2216
2217 * Removed native configurations
2218
2219 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2220 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2221
2222 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2223 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2224 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2225 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2226 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2227 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2228 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2229
2230 * New commands:
2231 catch rethrow
2232 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2233 maint check-psymtabs
2234 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2235 maint check-symtabs
2236 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2237 maint expand-symtabs
2238 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2239
2240 show configuration
2241 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2242
2243 maint set|show per-command
2244 maint set|show per-command space
2245 maint set|show per-command time
2246 maint set|show per-command symtab
2247 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2248
2249 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2250 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2251 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2252 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2253 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2254
2255 info exceptions
2256 info exceptions REGEXP
2257 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2258 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2259 are listed.
2260
2261 * New options
2262
2263 set debug symfile off|on
2264 show debug symfile
2265 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2266 symbol tables within those files
2267
2268 set print raw frame-arguments
2269 show print raw frame-arguments
2270 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2271 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2272
2273 set remote trace-status-packet
2274 show remote trace-status-packet
2275 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2276
2277 set debug nios2
2278 show debug nios2
2279 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2280
2281 set range-stepping
2282 show range-stepping
2283 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2284
2285 set startup-with-shell
2286 show startup-with-shell
2287 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2288 directly.
2289
2290 set code-cache
2291 show code-cache
2292 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2293 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2294
2295 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2296 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2297 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2298 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2299 "set height 0".
2300
2301 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2302 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2303 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2304
2305 * New command-line options
2306 --configuration
2307 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2308
2309 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2310 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2311
2312 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2313 GDB command gcore.
2314
2315 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2316
2317 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2318 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2319
2320 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2321 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2322
2323 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2324 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2325 due to an uncaught signal.
2326
2327 * MI changes
2328
2329 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2330 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2331 command, which should contain "language-option".
2332
2333 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2334 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2335
2336 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2337 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2338 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2339 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2340 "undefined-command-error-code".
2341
2342 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2343 Trace Format now.
2344
2345 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2346
2347 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2348 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2349 are displayed.
2350
2351 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2352 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2353
2354 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2355 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2356 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2357
2358 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2359 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2360 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2361 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2362 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2363 "exec-run-start-option".
2364
2365 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2366 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2367
2368 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2369 the new "info exceptions" command.
2370
2371 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2372 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2373 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2374 ** ElinOS
2375 ** Wind River Linux
2376
2377 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2378 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2379 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2380 below.
2381
2382 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2383 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2384
2385 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2386 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2387 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2388
2389 * New remote packets
2390
2391 vCont;r
2392
2393 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2394 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2395 involvemement at each single-step.
2396
2397 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2398 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2399 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2400 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2401 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2402 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2403 speedup.
2404
2405 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2406
2407 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2408 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2409
2410 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2411 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2412 trace state variables.
2413
2414 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2415 target.
2416
2417 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2418 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2419
2420 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2421
2422 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2423 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2424 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2425 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2426
2427 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2428
2429 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2430 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2431 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2432 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2433
2434 set|show record full insn-number-max
2435 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2436 set|show record full memory-query
2437
2438 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2439 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2440 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2441 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2442 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2443
2444 record btrace
2445
2446 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2447 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2448
2449 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2450 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2451 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2452
2453 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2454 instruction granularity
2455
2456 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2457 function granularity
2458
2459 * New native configurations
2460
2461 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2462 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2463 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2464 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2465
2466 * New targets
2467
2468 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2469 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2470 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2471 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2472 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2473
2474 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2475 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2476 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2477 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2478 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2479 --data-directory command-line option.
2480
2481 * New command line options:
2482
2483 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2484 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2485
2486 * Removed command line options
2487
2488 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2489 Emacs.
2490
2491 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2492 type formatting.
2493
2494 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2495
2496 * Python scripting
2497
2498 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2499
2500 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2501
2502 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2503
2504 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2505
2506 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2507 of architecture in the Python API.
2508
2509 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2510 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2511
2512 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2513
2514 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2515 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2516 ** $_strlen(str)
2517 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2518
2519 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2520 given an argument.
2521
2522 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2523 default for GCC since November 2000.
2524
2525 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2526
2527 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2528 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2529
2530 * New configure options
2531
2532 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2533 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2534 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2535 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2536 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2537 options allow the user to override that default.
2538 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2539 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2540 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2541
2542 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2543
2544 catch signal
2545 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2546 conditions to be attached.
2547
2548 maint info bfds
2549 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2550
2551 python-interactive [command]
2552 pi [command]
2553 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2554 and print the result of expressions.
2555
2556 py [command]
2557 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2558
2559 enable type-printer [name]...
2560 disable type-printer [name]...
2561 Enable or disable type printers.
2562
2563 * Removed commands
2564
2565 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2566 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2567 instead.
2568
2569 * New options
2570
2571 set print type methods (on|off)
2572 show print type methods
2573 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2574 The default is to show them.
2575
2576 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2577 show print type typedefs
2578 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2579 The default is to show them.
2580
2581 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2582 show filename-display
2583 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2584 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2585
2586 set trace-buffer-size
2587 show trace-buffer-size
2588 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2589
2590 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2591 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2592 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2593
2594 set debug aarch64
2595 show debug aarch64
2596 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2597 The default is off.
2598
2599 set debug coff-pe-read
2600 show debug coff-pe-read
2601 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2602 exported symbols.
2603
2604 set debug mach-o
2605 show debug mach-o
2606 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2607 processing.
2608
2609 set debug notification
2610 show debug notification
2611 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2612
2613 * MI changes
2614
2615 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2616 "=cmd-param-changed".
2617 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2618 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2619 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2620 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2621 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2622 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2623 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2624 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2625 "=memory-changed".
2626 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2627 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2628 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2629 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2630 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2631 library load/unload events.
2632 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2633 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2634 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2635 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2636 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2637 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2638 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2639 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2640
2641 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2642 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2643 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2644 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2645
2646 * New remote packets
2647
2648 QTBuffer:size
2649 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2650 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2651
2652 Qbtrace:bts
2653 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2654 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2655 qSupported query.
2656
2657 Qbtrace:off
2658 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2659 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2660
2661 qXfer:btrace:read
2662 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2663 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2664
2665 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2666
2667 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2668 for more x32 ABI info.
2669
2670 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2671
2672 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2673
2674 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2675 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2676 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2677 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2678 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2679 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2680 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2681 "info os msg" lists message queues
2682 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2683
2684 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2685 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2686 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2687 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2688 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2689 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2690
2691 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2692 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2693 record/replay support.
2694
2695 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2696
2697 * Python scripting
2698
2699 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2700 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2701
2702 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2703
2704 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2705 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2706
2707 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2708
2709 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2710 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2711
2712 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2713 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2714 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2715 symbol's value.
2716
2717 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2718 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2719
2720 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2721 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2722 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2723
2724 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2725 object associated with a PC value.
2726
2727 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2728 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2729
2730 * Go language support.
2731 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2732 language.
2733
2734 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2735 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2736
2737 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2738 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2739
2740 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2741 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2742 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2743 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2744 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2745 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2746
2747 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2748 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2749 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2750 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2751
2752 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2753 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2754
2755 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2756 since December 2007.
2757
2758 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2759 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2760 command does. For instance:
2761
2762 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2763
2764 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2765 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2766 created, using the "condition" command.
2767
2768 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2769 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2770
2771 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2772
2773 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2774 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2775 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2776 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2777 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2778 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2779 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2780 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2781
2782 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2783 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2784 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2785 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2786 the .gdb_index section.
2787
2788 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2789
2790 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2791 target.
2792
2793 * MI changes
2794
2795 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2796
2797 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2798
2799 * New commands
2800
2801 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2802 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2803 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2804
2805 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2806 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2807
2808 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2809 several hits.
2810
2811 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2812 C++ and Java objects.
2813
2814 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2815 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2816 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2817 configured with '--with-python'.
2818
2819 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2820 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2821 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2822 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2823 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2824 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2825 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2826
2827 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2828 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2829 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2830 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2831
2832 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2833 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2834 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2835 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2836
2837 ** "set print symbol"
2838 "show print symbol"
2839 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2840 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2841 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2842
2843 * Deprecated commands
2844
2845 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2846 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2847
2848 * New targets
2849
2850 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2851 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2852
2853 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2854 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2855 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2856 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2857 evaluates to true.
2858
2859 * New options
2860
2861 set mips compression
2862 show mips compression
2863 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2864 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2865 mips16
2866 micromips
2867 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2868
2869 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2870 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2871 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2872 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2873 available mode.
2874 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2875 target.
2876
2877 set auto-load off
2878 Disable auto-loading globally.
2879
2880 show auto-load
2881 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2882
2883 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2884 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2885 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2886
2887 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2888 show auto-load python-scripts
2889 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2890
2891 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2892 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2893 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2894
2895 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2896 show auto-load libthread-db
2897 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2898
2899 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2900 show auto-load scripts-directory
2901 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2902 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2903 of the directories listed by this option.
2904 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2905
2906 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2907 show auto-load safe-path
2908 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2909 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2910
2911 set debug auto-load on|off
2912 show debug auto-load
2913 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2914
2915 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2916 show dprintf-style
2917 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2918 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2919 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2920 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2921
2922 set dprintf-function <expr>
2923 show dprintf-function
2924 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2925 show dprintf-channel
2926 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2927 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2928
2929 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2930 show disconnected-dprintf
2931 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2932 after GDB disconnects.
2933
2934 * New configure options
2935
2936 --with-auto-load-dir
2937 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2938 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2939 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2940 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2941 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2942
2943 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2944 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2945 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2946
2947 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2948 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2949 security feature.
2950
2951 * New remote packets
2952
2953 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2954
2955 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2956 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2957 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2958 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2959
2960 QProgramSignals:
2961
2962 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2963 program without GDB involvement.
2964
2965 * New command line options
2966
2967 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2968 before loading inferior.
2969 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2970 execute it before loading inferior.
2971
2972 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2973
2974 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2975 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2976 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2977 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2978 inferior changes.
2979
2980 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2981 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2982
2983 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2984 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2985 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2986 target hardware watchpoint.
2987
2988 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2989 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2990 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2991 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2992
2993 * Python scripting
2994
2995 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2996 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2997 existing one.
2998
2999 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3000 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3001 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3002 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3003 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3004 the stack trace.
3005
3006 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3007 Python API.
3008
3009 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3010 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3011 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3012 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3013 corresponding value.
3014
3015 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3016 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3017 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3018 on GDB start-up.
3019
3020 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3021 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3022 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3023 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3024
3025 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3026
3027 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3028 "gdb.breakpoints".
3029
3030 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3031 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3032 available in the CLI.
3033
3034 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3035 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3036 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3037 "some_type.items()".
3038
3039 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3040 new object file.
3041
3042 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3043 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3044 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3045 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3046 any anonymous fields.
3047
3048 * MI changes
3049
3050 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3051 "solib-event".
3052
3053 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3054 "=breakpoint-modified".
3055
3056 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3057
3058 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3059 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3060 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3061 lives.
3062
3063 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3064 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3065 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3066 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3067 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3068
3069 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3070 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3071
3072 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3073 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3074 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3075 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3076 use this option to specify where to find it.
3077
3078 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3079 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3080 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3081 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3082 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3083 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3084 section in the user manual for more details.
3085
3086 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3087 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3088 become available after that.
3089
3090 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3091
3092 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3093 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3094 gcc version 4.7.
3095
3096 * New commands
3097
3098 !SHELL COMMAND
3099 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3100 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3101
3102 * Changed commands
3103
3104 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3105 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3106 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3107
3108 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3109 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3110 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3111
3112 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3113 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3114 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3115 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3116 name starts with a hyphen.
3117
3118 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3119 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3120 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3121 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3122 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3123 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3124 number of bytes that will be collected.
3125
3126 tstart [NOTES]
3127 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3128 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3129 setting the variable trace-notes.
3130
3131 tstop [NOTES]
3132 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3133 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3134 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3135 trace-stop-notes.
3136
3137 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3138 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3139 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3140 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3141 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3142 is running.
3143
3144 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3145 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3146 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3147
3148 * New options
3149
3150 set debug dwarf2-read
3151 show debug dwarf2-read
3152 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3153 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3154
3155 set debug symtab-create
3156 show debug symtab-create
3157 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3158 creation. The default is off.
3159
3160 set extended-prompt
3161 show extended-prompt
3162 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3163 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3164 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3165 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3166 prompt is displayed.
3167
3168 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3169 show print entry-values
3170 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3171 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3172 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3173
3174 set debug entry-values
3175 show debug entry-values
3176 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3177 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3178
3179 set basenames-may-differ
3180 show basenames-may-differ
3181 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3182 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3183 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3184 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3185 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3186 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3187 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3188 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3189
3190 set trace-user
3191 show trace-user
3192 set trace-notes
3193 show trace-notes
3194 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3195 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3196 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3197 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3198
3199 set trace-stop-notes
3200 show trace-stop-notes
3201 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3202 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3203 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3204 started by someone else.
3205
3206 * New remote packets
3207
3208 QTEnable
3209
3210 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3211
3212 QTDisable
3213
3214 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3215
3216 QTNotes
3217
3218 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3219
3220 qTP
3221
3222 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3223
3224 qTMinFTPILen
3225
3226 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3227 be placed.
3228
3229 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3230 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3231
3232 * New targets
3233
3234 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3235
3236 * New Simulators
3237
3238 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3239
3240 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3241
3242 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3243
3244 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3245
3246 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3247 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3248 matches the given regular expression.
3249
3250 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3251
3252 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3253 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3254
3255 * New command line options
3256
3257 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3258 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3259
3260 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3261 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3262
3263 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3264 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3265 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3266
3267 * GDB now understands thread names.
3268
3269 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3270 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3271
3272 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3273 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3274
3275 * OpenCL C
3276 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3277 has been integrated into GDB.
3278
3279 * Python scripting
3280
3281 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3282 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3283 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3284
3285 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3286 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3287 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3288 and allows for more dynamic content.
3289
3290 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3291 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3292 have an is_valid method.
3293
3294 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3295 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3296 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3297
3298 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3299
3300 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3301 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3302 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3303 that function like so:
3304
3305 result = some_value (10,20)
3306
3307 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3308 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3309 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3310
3311 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3312 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3313 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3314 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3315 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3316
3317 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3318 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3319
3320 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3321
3322 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3323 selected thread.
3324
3325 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3326 holds the thread's name.
3327
3328 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3329 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3330 occurring in the process being debugged.
3331 The following events are currently supported:
3332 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3333 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3334 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3335
3336 * C++ Improvements:
3337
3338 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3339 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3340
3341 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3342
3343 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3344 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3345 was added to GCC 4.5.
3346
3347 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3348 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3349 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3350 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3351 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3352 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3353
3354 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3355 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3356 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3357 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3358 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3359
3360 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3361 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3362 execution to a label.
3363
3364 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3365 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3366 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3367 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3368
3369 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3370 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3371 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3372 of scope.
3373
3374 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3375
3376 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3377 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3378 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3379 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3380 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3381 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3382
3383 (gdb) info threads
3384 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3385
3386 While now you see this:
3387
3388 (gdb) info threads
3389 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3390
3391 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3392 dumps.
3393
3394 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3395 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3396 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3397 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3398
3399 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3400 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3401 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3402 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3403 section in the user manual for more details.
3404
3405 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3406
3407 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3408 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3409
3410 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3411
3412 * New native configurations
3413
3414 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3415
3416 * New targets:
3417
3418 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3419
3420 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3421 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3422 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3423 in the GDB user manual.
3424
3425 * Guile support was removed.
3426
3427 * New features in the GNU simulator
3428
3429 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3430
3431 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3432
3433 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3434
3435 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3436
3437 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3438 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3439 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3440 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3441 was always disabled for such configurations.
3442
3443 * C++ Improvements:
3444
3445 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3446
3447 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3448 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3449 For example:
3450 namespace A
3451 {
3452 class B { };
3453 void foo (B) { }
3454 }
3455 ...
3456 A::B b
3457 foo(b)
3458 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3459 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3460 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3461
3462 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3463
3464 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3465 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3466 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3467 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3468 entry.
3469 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3470 mentioned flavors of operators.
3471
3472 ** static const class members
3473
3474 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3475 class definition has been fixed.
3476
3477 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3478
3479 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3480 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3481 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3482 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3483 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3484 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3485
3486 * Static tracepoints
3487
3488 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3489 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3490 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3491 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3492 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3493 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3494 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3495 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3496 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3497 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3498 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3499 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3500 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3501 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3502 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3503 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3504 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3505 the "New remote packets" section below.
3506
3507 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3508
3509 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3510 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3511 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3512 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3513
3514 * Observer mode
3515
3516 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3517 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3518 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3519 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3520 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3521 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3522 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3523
3524 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3525 current thread.
3526
3527 * New remote packets
3528
3529 qGetTIBAddr
3530
3531 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3532
3533 qRelocInsn
3534
3535 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3536 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3537 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3538 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3539 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3540 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3541
3542 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
3543
3544 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3545
3546 qTSTMat
3547
3548 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3549 program.
3550
3551 qXfer:statictrace:read
3552
3553 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3554 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3555 to gdb's qSupported query.
3556
3557 QAllow
3558
3559 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3560
3561 QTDPsrc
3562
3563 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3564 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3565
3566 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3567 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3568 a directory.
3569
3570 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3571
3572 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3573 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3574 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3575 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3576
3577 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3578 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3579 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3580 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3581 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3582 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3583 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3584
3585 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3586 for static tracepoints support.
3587
3588 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3589
3590 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3591 it understands register description.
3592
3593 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3594
3595 * X86 general purpose registers
3596
3597 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3598 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3599 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3600 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3601 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3602
3603 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3604 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3605 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3606 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3607 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3608 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3609
3610 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3611 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3612 in the specified file.
3613
3614 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3615 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3616 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3617 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3618 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3619 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3620 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3621 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3622 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3623 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3624
3625 * New commands
3626
3627 eval template, expressions...
3628 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3629 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3630
3631 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3632 show target-file-system-kind
3633 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3634 names.
3635
3636 save breakpoints <filename>
3637 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3638 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3639 definitions, use the `source' command.
3640
3641 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3642 is now deprecated.
3643
3644 info static-tracepoint-markers
3645 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3646
3647 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3648 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3649 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3650
3651 set observer on|off
3652 show observer
3653 Enable and disable observer mode.
3654
3655 set may-write-registers on|off
3656 set may-write-memory on|off
3657 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3658 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3659 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3660 set may-interrupt on|off
3661 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3662 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3663 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3664 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3665 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3666 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3667 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3668
3669 set record memory-query on|off
3670 show record memory-query
3671 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3672 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3673
3674 * Changed commands
3675
3676 disassemble
3677 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3678
3679 * Python scripting
3680
3681 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3682 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3683 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3684 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3685 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3686
3687 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3688 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3689 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3690 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3691
3692 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3693 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3694
3695 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3696
3697 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3698
3699 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3700
3701 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3702 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3703 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3704
3705 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3706 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3707 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3708 regular breakpoints.
3709
3710 * New targets
3711
3712 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3713
3714 * D language support.
3715 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3716 language.
3717
3718 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3719 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3720 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3721 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3722 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3723
3724 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3725 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3726 conditions of the form:
3727
3728 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3729
3730 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3731 interface mentioned above.
3732
3733 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3734
3735 * C++ Improvements
3736
3737 ** Namespace Support
3738
3739 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3740 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3741 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3742 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3743 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3744
3745 ** Bug Fixes
3746
3747 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3748 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3749 qualified name.
3750
3751 ** Cast Operators
3752
3753 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3754 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3755
3756 * New targets
3757
3758 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3759 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3760
3761 * New Simulators
3762
3763 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3764 Renesas RX rx
3765
3766 * Multi-program debugging.
3767
3768 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3769 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3770 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3771 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3772 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3773 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3774 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3775 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3776
3777 * New tracing features
3778
3779 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3780
3781 ** Trace state variables
3782
3783 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3784 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3785 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3786 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3787 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3788 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3789 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3790 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3791 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3792 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3793
3794 ** Fast tracepoints
3795
3796 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3797 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3798 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3799 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3800 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3801 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3802 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3803 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3804 the regular trace command.
3805
3806 ** Disconnected tracing
3807
3808 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3809 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3810 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3811 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3812 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3813
3814 ** Trace files
3815
3816 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3817 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3818 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3819 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3820 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3821 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3822 <name>".
3823
3824 ** Circular trace buffer
3825
3826 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3827 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3828 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3829 not be available for all target agents.
3830
3831 * Changed commands
3832
3833 disassemble
3834 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3835 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3836
3837 info variables
3838 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3839 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3840
3841 source
3842 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3843 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3844 support.
3845
3846 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3847 "set script-extension" (see below).
3848
3849 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3850
3851 record save [<FILENAME>]
3852 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3853 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3854
3855 record restore <FILENAME>
3856 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3857 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3858
3859 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3860 Add a new inferior.
3861
3862 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3863 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3864 inferior has loaded.
3865
3866 remove-inferior ID
3867 Remove an inferior.
3868
3869 maint info program-spaces
3870 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3871
3872 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3873 show remote interrupt-sequence
3874 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3875 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3876 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3877 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3878 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3879
3880 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3881 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3882 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3883 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3884 Linux kernel.
3885
3886 set remotebreak [on | off]
3887 show remotebreak
3888 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3889
3890 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3891 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3892
3893 info tvariables
3894 List trace state variables and their values.
3895
3896 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3897 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3898
3899 teval EXPR, ...
3900 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3901 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3902
3903 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3904 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3905
3906 * New expression syntax
3907
3908 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3909 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3910
3911 * New options
3912
3913 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3914 show follow-exec-mode
3915 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3916 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3917 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3918
3919 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3920 show default-collect
3921 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3922 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3923 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3924
3925 set disconnected-tracing
3926 show disconnected-tracing
3927 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3928 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3929 upon disconnection.
3930
3931 set circular-trace-buffer
3932 show circular-trace-buffer
3933 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3934 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3935 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3936 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3937
3938 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3939 show script-extension
3940 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3941 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3942 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3943 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3944 evaluation failed.
3945 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3946
3947 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3948 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3949 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3950 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3951 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3952 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3953 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3954 is on.
3955
3956 * Python API Improvements
3957
3958 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3959 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3960 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3961
3962 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3963 `is_base_class' attribute.
3964
3965 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3966
3967 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3968 evaluate an expression.
3969
3970 * New remote packets
3971
3972 QTDV
3973 Define a trace state variable.
3974
3975 qTV
3976 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3977
3978 QTDisconnected
3979 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3980
3981 QTBuffer:circular
3982 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3983
3984 qTfP, qTsP
3985 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3986
3987 * Bug fixes
3988
3989 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3990
3991 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3992 much more reliable. In particular:
3993 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3994 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3995 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3996 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3997 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3998 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3999 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4000 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4001 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4002 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4003 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4004 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4005 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4006 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4007 non-threaded programs.
4008
4009 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4010 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4011 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4012 executable program.
4013
4014 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4015
4016 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4017 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4018 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4019 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4020 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4021
4022 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4023 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4024 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4025 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4026 for tracepoint actions.
4027
4028 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4029 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4030 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4031
4032 * Process record and replay
4033
4034 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4035 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4036 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4037 execute commands.
4038
4039 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4040 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4041 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4042 reverse execution.
4043
4044 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4045 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4046 2.6.28 or later.
4047
4048 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4049 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4050 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4051 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4052 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4053 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4054 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4055 the installation instructions for more information.
4056
4057 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4058 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4059 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4060 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4061
4062 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4063 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4064
4065 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4066 now complete on file names.
4067
4068 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4069 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4070 For instance, consider:
4071
4072 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4073 # struct example variable;
4074 (gdb) p variable.
4075
4076 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4077 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4078
4079 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4080 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4081
4082 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4083 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4084 macros.
4085
4086 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4087 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4088 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4089
4090 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4091 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4092 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4093 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4094
4095 * New remote packets
4096
4097 qSearch:memory:
4098 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4099
4100 QStartNoAckMode
4101 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4102 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4103 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4104
4105 vKill
4106 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4107 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4108
4109 qXfer:osdata:read
4110 Obtains additional operating system information
4111
4112 qXfer:siginfo:read
4113 qXfer:siginfo:write
4114 Read or write additional signal information.
4115
4116 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4117
4118 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4119 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4120 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4121
4122 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4123 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4124
4125 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4126 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4127 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4128
4129 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4130 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4131
4132 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4133
4134 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4135
4136 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4137 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4138
4139 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
4140 list of section offsets.
4141
4142 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4143 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4144 have also been fixed.
4145
4146 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4147 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4148 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4149
4150 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4151 example, given:
4152
4153 template<typename T> class C { };
4154 C<char const *> c;
4155
4156 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4157
4158 ptype C<char const *>
4159 ptype C<char const*>
4160 ptype C<const char *>
4161 ptype C<const char*>
4162
4163 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4164
4165 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4166 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4167
4168 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4169 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4170 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4171
4172 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4173 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4174
4175 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4176 gdbserver.
4177
4178 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4179 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4180
4181 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4182 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4183 as appropriate.
4184
4185 * Python scripting
4186
4187 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4188 available is determined at configure time.
4189
4190 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4191
4192 * Ada tasking support
4193
4194 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4195 been introduced:
4196
4197 info tasks
4198 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4199 info task N
4200 Print detailed information about task number N.
4201 task
4202 Print the task number of the current task.
4203 task N
4204 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4205
4206 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4207 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4208
4209 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4210
4211 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4212 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4213 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4214 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4215 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4216 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4217 below.
4218
4219 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4220 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4221 information.
4222
4223 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4224 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4225 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4226 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4227 more information.
4228
4229 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4230
4231 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4232 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4233 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4234 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4235 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4236
4237 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4238 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4239 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4240 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4241 --enable-targets configure option.
4242
4243 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4244
4245 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4246 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4247 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4248 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4249 section in the user manual for more information.
4250
4251 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4252 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4253 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4254 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4255 extensions on linux targets.
4256
4257 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4258
4259 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4260 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4261 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4262 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4263 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4264 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4265 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4266 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4267 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4268
4269 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4270 val1 [, val2, ...]
4271 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4272
4273 maint set python print-stack
4274 maint show python print-stack
4275 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4276
4277 python [CODE]
4278 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4279
4280 macro define
4281 macro list
4282 macro undef
4283 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4284 interactively.
4285
4286 info os processes
4287 Show operating system information about processes.
4288
4289 info inferiors
4290 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4291
4292 inferior NUM
4293 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4294
4295 detach inferior NUM
4296 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4297
4298 kill inferior NUM
4299 Kill inferior number NUM.
4300
4301 * New options
4302
4303 set spu stop-on-load
4304 show spu stop-on-load
4305 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4306
4307 set spu auto-flush-cache
4308 show spu auto-flush-cache
4309 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4310 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4311
4312 set sh calling-convention
4313 show sh calling-convention
4314 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4315
4316 set debug timestamp
4317 show debug timestamp
4318 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4319
4320 set disassemble-next-line
4321 show disassemble-next-line
4322 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4323 the debuggee stops.
4324
4325 set remote noack-packet
4326 show remote noack-packet
4327 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4328 under "New remote packets."
4329
4330 set remote query-attached-packet
4331 show remote query-attached-packet
4332 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4333
4334 set remote read-siginfo-object
4335 show remote read-siginfo-object
4336 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4337 packet.
4338
4339 set remote write-siginfo-object
4340 show remote write-siginfo-object
4341 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4342 packet.
4343
4344 set remote reverse-continue
4345 show remote reverse-continue
4346 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4347
4348 set remote reverse-step
4349 show remote reverse-step
4350 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4351
4352 set displaced-stepping
4353 show displaced-stepping
4354 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4355 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4356 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4357
4358 set debug displaced
4359 show debug displaced
4360 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4361
4362 maint set internal-error
4363 maint show internal-error
4364 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4365
4366 maint set internal-warning
4367 maint show internal-warning
4368 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4369
4370 set exec-wrapper
4371 show exec-wrapper
4372 unset exec-wrapper
4373 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4374
4375 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4376 show multiple-symbols
4377 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4378 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4379 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4380
4381 set breakpoint always-inserted
4382 show breakpoint always-inserted
4383 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4384 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4385 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4386
4387 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4388 show arm fallback-mode
4389 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4390 show arm force-mode
4391 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4392 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4393 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4394 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4395
4396 set disable-randomization
4397 show disable-randomization
4398 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4399 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4400 multiple debugging sessions.
4401
4402 set non-stop
4403 show non-stop
4404 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4405 a breakpoint.
4406
4407 set target-async
4408 show target-async
4409 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4410 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4411 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4412 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4413
4414 set target-wide-charset
4415 show target-wide-charset
4416 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4417 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4418
4419 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4420 show tcp auto-retry
4421 set tcp connect-timeout
4422 show tcp connect-timeout
4423 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4424 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4425 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4426
4427 set libthread-db-search-path
4428 show libthread-db-search-path
4429 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4430 libthread_db.
4431
4432 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4433 show schedule-multiple
4434 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4435 the current process.
4436
4437 set stack-cache
4438 show stack-cache
4439 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4440 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4441 affecting correctness.
4442
4443 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4444 show interactive-mode
4445 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4446 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4447 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4448 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4449 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4450
4451 * Removed commands
4452
4453 info forks
4454 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4455 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4456 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4457 command.
4458
4459 fork NUM
4460 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4461 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4462 alias for the `fork' command.
4463
4464 process PID
4465 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4466 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4467 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4468
4469 delete fork NUM
4470 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4471 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4472 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4473 fork' command.
4474
4475 detach fork NUM
4476 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4477 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4478 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4479 fork' command.
4480
4481 * New native configurations
4482
4483 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4484
4485 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4486
4487 * New targets
4488
4489 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4490 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4491 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4492 S+core 3 score-*-*
4493
4494 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4495 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4496
4497 * Removed commands
4498
4499 catch load
4500 catch unload
4501 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4502
4503 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4504
4505 * New native configurations
4506
4507 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4508 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4509
4510 * New targets
4511
4512 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4513 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
4514
4515 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4516
4517 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4518 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4519 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4520 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4521
4522 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4523 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4524
4525 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4526 is resolved.
4527
4528 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4529 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4530 and in inlined functions.
4531
4532 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4533 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4534 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4535
4536 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4537
4538 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4539 registers on PowerPC targets.
4540
4541 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4542 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4543
4544 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4545 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4546
4547 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4548 extended-remote mode.
4549
4550 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4551 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4552 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4553 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4554
4555 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4556 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4557 target architectures.
4558
4559 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4560 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4561 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4562 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4563
4564 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4565 breakpoints now.
4566
4567 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4568 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4569 include:
4570 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4571 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4572 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4573 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4574 of an assignment
4575 - Improved command completion in Ada
4576 - Several bug fixes
4577
4578 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4579 process.
4580
4581 * New commands
4582
4583 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4584 show print frame-arguments
4585 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4586 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4587
4588 remote put
4589 remote get
4590 remote delete
4591 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4592
4593 * New MI commands
4594
4595 -target-file-put
4596 -target-file-get
4597 -target-file-delete
4598 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4599
4600 * New remote packets
4601
4602 vFile:open:
4603 vFile:close:
4604 vFile:pread:
4605 vFile:pwrite:
4606 vFile:unlink:
4607 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4608
4609 vAttach
4610 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4611 mode.
4612
4613 vRun
4614 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4615
4616 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4617
4618 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4619 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4620 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4621
4622 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4623 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4624 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4625
4626 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4627 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4628 is not supported.
4629
4630 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4631 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4632
4633 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4634 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4635
4636 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4637
4638 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4639 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4640 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4641
4642 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4643 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4644
4645 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4646 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4647 as strings.
4648
4649 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4650 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4651 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4652
4653 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4654 iWMMXt coprocessor.
4655
4656 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4657 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4658 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4659
4660 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4661
4662 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4663
4664 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4665 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4666 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4667
4668 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4669 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4670
4671 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4672 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4673 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4674 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4675 Windows and SymbianOS).
4676
4677 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4678 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4679
4680 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4681 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4682
4683 * New commands
4684
4685 set remoteflow
4686 show remoteflow
4687 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4688 when debugging using remote targets.
4689
4690 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4691 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4692 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4693 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4694 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4695 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4696 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4697
4698 set breakpoint auto-hw
4699 show breakpoint auto-hw
4700 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4701 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4702 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4703 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4704 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4705 including "next" and "finish".
4706
4707 catch exception
4708 catch exception unhandled
4709 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4710
4711 catch assert
4712 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4713
4714 set sysroot
4715 show sysroot
4716 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4717 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4718 an alias to "set sysroot".
4719
4720 info spu
4721 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4722 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4723 architecture.
4724
4725 * New native configurations
4726
4727 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4728
4729 set tdesc filename
4730 unset tdesc filename
4731 show tdesc filename
4732 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4733 not query the target for its built-in description.
4734
4735 * New targets
4736
4737 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4738 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4739 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4740
4741 * New remote packets
4742
4743 QPassSignals:
4744 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4745 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4746
4747 qXfer:features:read:
4748 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4749 features.
4750
4751 qXfer:spu:read:
4752 qXfer:spu:write:
4753 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4754 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4755
4756 qXfer:libraries:read:
4757 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4758 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4759 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4760 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4761
4762 * Removed targets
4763
4764 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4765
4766 alpha*-*-osf1*
4767 alpha*-*-osf2*
4768 d10v-*-*
4769 hppa*-*-hiux*
4770 i[34567]86-ncr-*
4771 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4772 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4773 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4774 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4775 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4776 i[34567]86-*-sco*
4777 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4778 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4779 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4780 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4781 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4782 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4783 i[34567]86-*-isc*
4784 m68*-cisco*-*
4785 m68*-tandem-*
4786 mips*-*-pe
4787 rs6000-*-lynxos*
4788 sh*-*-pe
4789
4790 * Other removed features
4791
4792 target abug
4793 target cpu32bug
4794 target est
4795 target rom68k
4796
4797 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4798
4799 target hms
4800 target e7000
4801 target sh3
4802 target sh3e
4803
4804 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4805 H8/300.
4806
4807 target ocd
4808
4809 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4810 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4811 interfaces.
4812
4813 DWARF 1 support
4814
4815 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4816 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4817
4818 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4819
4820 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4821 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4822 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4823 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4824
4825 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4826
4827 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4828 in debugging information.
4829
4830 Scheme support
4831
4832 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4833 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4834
4835 set mips stack-arg-size
4836 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4837
4838 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4839
4840 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4841
4842 * New targets
4843
4844 Xtensa xtensa-elf
4845 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4846
4847 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4848 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4849 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4850
4851 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4852 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4853 supported.
4854
4855 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4856 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4857
4858 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4859 stub provides the required support.
4860
4861 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4862 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4863
4864 * New commands
4865
4866 set substitute-path
4867 unset substitute-path
4868 show substitute-path
4869 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4870 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4871 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4872 between compilation and debugging.
4873
4874 set trace-commands
4875 show trace-commands
4876 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4877 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4878 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4879
4880 * REMOVED features
4881
4882 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4883
4884 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4885 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4886
4887 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4888
4889 * New remote packets
4890
4891 qSupported:
4892 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4893 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4894 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4895 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4896 target.
4897
4898 qXfer:auxv:read:
4899 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4900 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4901
4902 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4903 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4904 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4905
4906 vFlashErase:
4907 vFlashWrite:
4908 vFlashDone:
4909 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4910
4911 * Removed remote packets
4912
4913 qPart:auxv:read:
4914 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4915 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4916
4917 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4918
4919 * New targets
4920
4921 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4922
4923 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4924
4925 * New commands
4926
4927 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4928 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4929
4930 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4931
4932 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4933
4934 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4935 previously saved state.
4936
4937 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4938
4939 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4940
4941 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4942 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4943
4944 info forks List forks of the user program that
4945 are available to be debugged.
4946
4947 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4948 forks of the user program that are
4949 available to be debugged.
4950
4951 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4952 that are available to be debugged (and
4953 kill the forked process).
4954
4955 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4956 that are available to be debugged (and
4957 allow the process to continue).
4958
4959 * New architecture
4960
4961 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4962
4963 * Improved Windows host support
4964
4965 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4966 native console support, and remote communications using either
4967 network sockets or serial ports.
4968
4969 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4970
4971 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4972 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4973 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4974 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4975 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4976 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4977
4978 * REMOVED features
4979
4980 The ARM rdi-share module.
4981
4982 The Netware NLM debug server.
4983
4984 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4985
4986 * New native configurations
4987
4988 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4989 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4990
4991 * New targets
4992
4993 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4994
4995 * New command line options
4996
4997 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4998 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4999 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5000 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5001 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5002 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5003 with the --command (-x) option.
5004
5005 * Deprecated commands removed
5006
5007 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5008 removed:
5009
5010 Command Replacement
5011 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5012 othernames set arm disassembler
5013 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5014 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5015 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5016 regs info registers
5017
5018 * New BSD user-level threads support
5019
5020 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5021 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5022 configurations are:
5023
5024 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5025 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5026 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5027
5028 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5029 are not yet supported.
5030
5031 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5032 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5033
5034 * REMOVED configurations and files
5035
5036 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5037 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5038 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5039
5040 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5041
5042 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5043 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5044 behavior.
5045
5046 * VAX floating point support
5047
5048 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5049
5050 * User-defined command support
5051
5052 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5053 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5054 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5055
5056 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5057
5058 * New command line option
5059
5060 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5061 debugging.
5062
5063 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5064
5065 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5066 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5067 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5068 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5069 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5070
5071 * Internationalization
5072
5073 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5074 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5075 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5076
5077 * Ada
5078
5079 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5080 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5081 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5082
5083 * New native configurations
5084
5085 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5086
5087 * Remote 'p' packet
5088
5089 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5090 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5091
5092 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5093
5094 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5095 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5096 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5097 i386 application).
5098
5099 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
5100 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5101 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5102 configurations:
5103
5104 hppa-*-hpux
5105 ia64-*-aix
5106 mips-*-irix*
5107 *-*-lynx
5108 mips-*-linux-gnu
5109 sds protocol
5110 xdr protocol
5111 powerpc bdm protocol
5112
5113 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5114 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5115
5116 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5117
5118 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5119 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5120 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5121 permanently REMOVED.
5122
5123 h8300-*-*
5124 mcore-*-*
5125 mn10300-*-*
5126 ns32k-*-*
5127 sh64-*-*
5128 v850-*-*
5129
5130 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5131
5132 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5133
5134 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5135 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5136 been fixed.
5137
5138 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5139
5140 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5141 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5142 IRIX long double values).
5143
5144 * VAX and "next"
5145
5146 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5147 command. This problem has been fixed.
5148
5149 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5150
5151 * Fix for ``many threads''
5152
5153 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5154 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5155 error message:
5156
5157 ptrace: No such process.
5158 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5159
5160 This problem has been fixed.
5161
5162 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5163
5164 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5165 GDB to dump core).
5166
5167 * New ``start'' command.
5168
5169 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
5170
5171 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5172
5173 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5174 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5175 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5176
5177 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5178 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5179 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5180 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5181 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5182 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5183 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5184 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5185 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5186
5187 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5188
5189 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5190 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5191 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5192 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5193 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5194
5195 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5196 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5197 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5198
5199 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5200
5201 * New native configurations
5202
5203 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5204 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5205 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5206 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5207 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5208 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5209 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5210
5211 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5212
5213 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5214 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5215 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5216 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5217 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5218 work, was also included.
5219
5220 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5221 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5222
5223 h8300-*-*
5224 mcore-*-*
5225 mn10300-*-*
5226 ns32k-*-*
5227 sh64-*-*
5228 v850-*-*
5229 xstormy16-*-*
5230
5231 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5232 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5233
5234 * REMOVED configurations and files
5235
5236 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5237 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5238 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5239 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5240 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5241 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5242 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5243 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5244 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5245 sonymips mips-sony-*
5246 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5247
5248 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5249
5250 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5251
5252 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5253 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5254 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5255 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5256 with GDB".
5257
5258 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5259
5260 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5261 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5262 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5263 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5264 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5265 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5266 are created.
5267
5268 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5269
5270 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5271
5272 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5273 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5274 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5275
5276 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5277
5278 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5279 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5280
5281 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5282
5283 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5284 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5285 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5286
5287 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5288
5289 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5290 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5291
5292 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5293
5294 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5295 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5296 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5297
5298 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5299
5300 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5301 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5302 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5303
5304 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5305
5306 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5307
5308 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5309 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5310
5311 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5312
5313 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5314 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5315 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5316 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5317
5318 * Revised SPARC target
5319
5320 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5321 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5322 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5323 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5324 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5325
5326 * New C++ demangler
5327
5328 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5329 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5330 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5331 programs.
5332
5333 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5334
5335 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5336 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5337 encountered these.
5338
5339 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5340
5341 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5342 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5343 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5344 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5345 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5346 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5347 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5348 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5349 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5350
5351 * New native configurations
5352
5353 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5354 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5355 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5356 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5357 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5358
5359 * New debugging protocols
5360
5361 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5362
5363 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5364
5365 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5366 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5367 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5368
5369 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5370
5371 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5372 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5373 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5374 permanently REMOVED.
5375
5376 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5377 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5378 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5379 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5380 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5381 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5382 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5383 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5384 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5385 sonymips mips-sony-*
5386 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5387
5388 * REMOVED configurations and files
5389
5390 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5391 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5392 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5393 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5394 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5395 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5396 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5397 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5398 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5399 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5400 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5401 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5402 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5403 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5404 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5405 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5406 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5407
5408 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5409
5410 * Objective-C
5411
5412 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5413 integrated into GDB.
5414
5415 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5416
5417 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5418 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5419 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5420 backtraces.
5421
5422 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5423 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5424 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5425
5426 * Hosted file I/O.
5427
5428 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5429 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5430 remote protocol documentation for details.
5431
5432 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5433
5434 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5435 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5436 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5437 ppc32 on ppc64).
5438
5439 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5440
5441 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5442 per-thread variables.
5443
5444 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5445
5446 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5447 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5448
5449 * Separate debug info.
5450
5451 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5452 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5453 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5454 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5455 and optional debug files.
5456
5457 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5458
5459 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5460 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5461 debugger.
5462
5463 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5464 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5465
5466 * Java
5467
5468 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5469 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5470 considered "useable".
5471
5472 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5473
5474 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5475 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5476 kernel.
5477
5478 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5479
5480 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5481 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5482
5483 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5484
5485 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5486 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5487 command.
5488
5489 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5490
5491 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5492 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5493
5494 * Profiling support
5495
5496 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5497 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5498 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5499 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5500 data, for more informative profiling results.
5501
5502 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5503
5504 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5505 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5506 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5507
5508 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5509 removed.
5510
5511 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5512 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5513 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5514 in a subsequent -var-update.
5515
5516 * New native configurations.
5517
5518 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5519
5520 * Multi-arched targets.
5521
5522 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5523 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5524
5525 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5526
5527 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5528 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5529 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5530 permanently REMOVED.
5531
5532 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5533 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5534 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5535 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5536 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5537 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5538 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5539 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5540 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5541 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5542 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5543 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5544
5545 * REMOVED configurations and files
5546
5547 V850EA ISA
5548 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5549 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5550 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5551 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5552 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5553 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5554 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5555 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5556 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5557 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5558 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5559 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5560 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5561
5562 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5563
5564 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5565 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5566 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5567 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5568 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5569
5570 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5571
5572 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5573
5574 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5575 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5576 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5577 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5578 shared libs like mad''.
5579
5580 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5581
5582 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5583 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5584 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5585 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5586
5587 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5588
5589 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5590 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5591 they expand.
5592
5593 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5594 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5595
5596 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5597 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5598
5599 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5600 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5601 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5602 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5603
5604 * Multi-arched targets.
5605
5606 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5607 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5608 NEC V850 v850-*-*
5609 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5610 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5611 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5612
5613 * New targets.
5614
5615 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5616
5617
5618 * New native configurations
5619
5620 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5621 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5622 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5623 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5624
5625 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5626
5627 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5628 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5629 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5630 permanently REMOVED.
5631
5632 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5633 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5634 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5635 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5636 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5637 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5638 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5639 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5640 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5641 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5642 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5643 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5644 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5645
5646 * OBSOLETE languages
5647
5648 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5649
5650 * REMOVED configurations and files
5651
5652 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5653 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5654 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5655 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5656 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5657
5658 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5659
5660 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5661
5662 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5663 commands. The default is 1024.
5664
5665 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5666
5667 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5668
5669 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5670
5671 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5672 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5673 from a file into memory (restore).
5674
5675 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5676
5677 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5678 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5679 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5680
5681 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5682
5683 * New targets.
5684
5685 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5686
5687 * Bug fixes
5688
5689 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5690 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5691 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5692
5693 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5694 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5695 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5696
5697 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5698 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5699 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5700
5701 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5702 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5703 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5704
5705 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5706
5707 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5708
5709 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5710 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5711 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5712 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5713 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5714 (notably embedded) targets.
5715
5716 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5717
5718 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5719 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5720 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5721 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5722
5723 * New command line option
5724
5725 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5726
5727 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5728
5729 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5730 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5731 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5732 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5733 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5734 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5735 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5736 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5737 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5738 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5739
5740 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5741
5742 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5743 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5744
5745 * New native configurations
5746
5747 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5748 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5749 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5750 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5751
5752 * New targets
5753
5754 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5755
5756 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5757
5758 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5759 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5760 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5761 permanently REMOVED.
5762
5763 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5764 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5765 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5766 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5767 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5768
5769 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5770
5771 * REMOVED configurations and files
5772
5773 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5774 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5775 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5776 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5777 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5778 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5779 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5780 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5781 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5782 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5783 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5784 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5785 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5786
5787 * Changes to command line processing
5788
5789 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5790 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5791
5792 * Changes to key bindings
5793
5794 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5795
5796 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5797
5798 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5799
5800 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5801 corrupted.
5802
5803 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5804
5805 Numerous documentation fixes.
5806
5807 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5808
5809 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5810
5811 * New native configurations
5812
5813 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5814 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5815 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5816 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5817 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5818 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5819
5820 * New targets
5821
5822 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5823 CRIS cris-axis
5824 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5825
5826 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5827
5828 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5829 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5830 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5831 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5832 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5833 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5834 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5835 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5836 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5837 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5838 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5839 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5840 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5841 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5842
5843 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5844 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5845
5846 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5847 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5848 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5849 permanently REMOVED.
5850
5851 * REMOVED configurations and files
5852
5853 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5854 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5855 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5856 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5857 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5858 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5859
5860 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5861
5862 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5863 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5864 present.
5865
5866 * Other news:
5867
5868 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5869
5870 * The MI enabled by default.
5871
5872 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5873 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5874 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5875 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5876 which is now deprecated.
5877
5878 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5879
5880 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5881 main features are supported:
5882
5883 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5884
5885 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5886 extension;
5887
5888 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5889
5890 - a Pascal expression parser.
5891
5892 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5893
5894 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5895
5896 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5897
5898 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5899 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5900
5901 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5902
5903 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5904
5905 * Changes in completion.
5906
5907 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5908 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5909 users expect at the shell prompt.
5910
5911 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5912 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5913 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5914 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5915 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5916 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5917 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5918
5919 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5920
5921 * New platform-independent commands:
5922
5923 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5924 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5925 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5926
5927 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5928
5929 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5930 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5931 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5932
5933 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5934
5935 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5936 multi-threaded programs though.
5937
5938 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5939
5940 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5941
5942 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5943 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5944 supported.)
5945
5946 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5947
5948 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5949 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5950 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5951 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5952 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5953 registers.
5954
5955 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5956 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5957 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5958
5959 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5960
5961 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5962 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5963
5964 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5965 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5966 IDT.
5967
5968 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5969 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5970 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5971 a given linear address.
5972
5973 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5974 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5975 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5976
5977 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5978
5979 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5980
5981 * Changes in documentation.
5982
5983 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5984 Documentation License.
5985
5986 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5987 manual.
5988
5989 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5990
5991 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5992 manual.
5993
5994 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5995 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5996 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5997
5998 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5999
6000 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6001 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6002 contents of this file.
6003
6004 * gdba.el deleted
6005
6006 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6007
6008 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6009
6010 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6011
6012 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6013 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6014 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6015 greater level of detail.
6016
6017 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6018
6019 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6020 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6021 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6022 written.
6023
6024 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6025
6026 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6027 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6028 machines ``out of the box''.
6029
6030 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6031 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6032 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6033 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6034 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6035
6036 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6037 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6038 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6039 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6040 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6041
6042 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6043 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6044 also works.
6045
6046 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6047 GDB.
6048
6049 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6050 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6051 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6052 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6053
6054 * New native configurations
6055
6056 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6057 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6058
6059 * New targets
6060
6061 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6062 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6063 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6064 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6065
6066 * OBSOLETE configurations
6067
6068 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6069 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6070 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6071 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6072 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6073
6074 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6075 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6076 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6077 be permanently REMOVED.
6078
6079 * Gould support removed
6080
6081 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6082
6083 * New features for SVR4
6084
6085 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6086 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6087 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6088
6089 * Many C++ enhancements
6090
6091 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6092 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6093
6094 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6095
6096 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6097 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6098 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6099 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6100
6101 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6102 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6103
6104 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6105
6106 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6107 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6108 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6109
6110 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6111 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6112
6113 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6114
6115 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6116 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6117 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6118
6119 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6120
6121 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6122 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6123 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6124
6125 * ``apropos'' command added.
6126
6127 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6128 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6129 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6130
6131 * New MI interface
6132
6133 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6134 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6135 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6136 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6137 enabled by configuring with:
6138
6139 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6140
6141 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6142
6143 * New native configurations
6144
6145 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6146 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6147 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6148
6149 * New targets
6150
6151 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6152 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6153 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6154
6155 * OBSOLETE configurations
6156
6157 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6158
6159 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6160 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6161 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6162 be permanently REMOVED.
6163
6164 * ANSI/ISO C
6165
6166 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6167 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6168 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6169 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6170 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6171 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6172 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6173 already.
6174
6175 * Readline 2.2
6176
6177 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6178
6179 * set extension-language
6180
6181 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6182 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6183 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6184 set extension-language .c c++
6185 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6186 and their associated languages.
6187
6188 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6189
6190 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6191 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6192 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6193
6194 set processor NAME
6195
6196 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6197 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6198
6199 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6200 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6201 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6202 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6203 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6204 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6205 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6206 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6207 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6208 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6209 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6210
6211 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6212 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6213 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6214 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6215
6216 * HP-UX support
6217
6218 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6219 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6220 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6221 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6222 for xdb and dbx commands.
6223
6224 * Catchpoints
6225
6226 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6227 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6228 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6229
6230 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6231 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6232 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6233
6234 * Debugging across forks
6235
6236 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6237 in the inferior.
6238
6239 * TUI
6240
6241 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6242 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6243 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6244
6245 * GDB remote protocol additions
6246
6247 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6248 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6249 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6250 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6251
6252 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6253 full 64-bit address. The command
6254
6255 set remoteaddresssize 32
6256
6257 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6258 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6259 will be discarded.
6260
6261 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6262 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6263
6264 maint packet heythere
6265
6266 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6267 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6268 time.
6269
6270 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6271 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6272 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6273
6274 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6275
6276 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6277 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6278 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6279
6280 * mask-address variable for Mips
6281
6282 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6283 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6284 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6285
6286 * Higher serial baud rates
6287
6288 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6289 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6290 to achieve all of these rates.)
6291
6292 * i960 simulator
6293
6294 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6295 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6296
6297
6298 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6299
6300 * New native configurations
6301
6302 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6303 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6304 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6305 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6306 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6307 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6308 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6309
6310 * New targets
6311
6312 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6313 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6314 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6315 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6316 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6317 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6318 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6319 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6320 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6321 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6322 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6323
6324 * New debugging protocols
6325
6326 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6327 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6328 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6329 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6330 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6331 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6332
6333 * DWARF 2
6334
6335 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6336 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6337 information.
6338
6339 * Java frontend
6340
6341 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6342 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6343
6344 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6345
6346 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6347 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6348 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6349
6350 * Live range splitting
6351
6352 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6353 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6354 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6355
6356 * Hurd support
6357
6358 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6359 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6360
6361 * ARM Thumb support
6362
6363 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6364 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6365 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6366 accordingly.
6367
6368 * MIPS16 support
6369
6370 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6371 instruction set.
6372
6373 * Overlay support
6374
6375 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6376 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6377 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6378 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6379 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6380 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6381
6382 * info symbol
6383
6384 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6385 the symbol at the specified address.
6386
6387 * Trace support
6388
6389 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6390 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6391 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6392 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6393 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6394
6395 * MIPS simulator
6396
6397 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6398 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6399 of most MIPS variants.
6400
6401 * Sparc simulator
6402
6403 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6404 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6405 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6406
6407 * set architecture
6408
6409 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6410 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6411 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6412 the possible architectures.
6413
6414 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6415
6416 * New native configurations
6417
6418 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6419 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6420 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6421 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6422 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6423 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6424
6425 * New targets
6426
6427 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6428 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6429 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6430 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6431 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6432 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
6433 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6434
6435 * PowerPC simulator
6436
6437 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6438 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6439 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6440 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6441 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6442
6443 * Solaris 2.5
6444
6445 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6446
6447 * Windows 95/NT native
6448
6449 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6450 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6451 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6452 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6453 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6454
6455 * dont-repeat command
6456
6457 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6458 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6459 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6460 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6461
6462 * Send break instead of ^C
6463
6464 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6465 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6466 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6467
6468 * Remote protocol timeout
6469
6470 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6471 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6472 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6473
6474 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6475
6476 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6477 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6478 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6479 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6480 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6481
6482 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6483 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6484 automatically on hpux10.
6485
6486 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6487
6488 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6489
6490 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6491
6492 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6493 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6494 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6495 every character. The default value is 1050.
6496
6497 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6498
6499 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6500 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6501 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6502 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6503 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6504 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6505
6506 * Speedups for remote debugging
6507
6508 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6509 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6510 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6511
6512 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6513
6514 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6515 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6516
6517 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6518
6519 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6520
6521 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6522 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6523
6524 * Remote targets use caching
6525
6526 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6527 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6528 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6529 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6530 off' turns the the data cache off.
6531
6532 * Remote targets may have threads
6533
6534 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6535 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6536 gdb/remote.c for details.
6537
6538 * NetROM support
6539
6540 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6541 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6542 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6543 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6544 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6545 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6546 sequence is something like
6547
6548 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6549 load <prog>
6550 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6551
6552 * Macintosh host
6553
6554 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6555 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6556 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6557 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6558 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6559 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6560 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6561 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6562
6563 * Autoconf
6564
6565 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6566 but does simplify configuration and building.
6567
6568 * hpux10
6569
6570 GDB now supports hpux10.
6571
6572 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6573
6574 * New native configurations
6575
6576 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6577 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6578 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6579 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6580
6581 * New targets
6582
6583 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6584 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6585 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6586 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6587 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6588
6589 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6590
6591 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6592 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6593 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6594 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6595 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6596
6597 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6598
6599 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6600 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6601 trivial example:
6602 define adder
6603 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6604
6605 To execute the command use:
6606 adder 1 2 3
6607
6608 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6609 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6610 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6611
6612 * New `if' and `while' commands
6613
6614 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6615 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6616 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6617 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6618 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6619 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6620 if the expression is zero.
6621
6622 * Fortran source language mode
6623
6624 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6625 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6626 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6627 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6628 Fortran compilers.
6629
6630 * Better HPUX support
6631
6632 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6633 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6634 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6635 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6636 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6637
6638 adb -w a.out
6639 __dld_flags?W 0x5
6640 control-d
6641
6642 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6643 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6644
6645 adb -w a.out
6646 __dld_flags?W 0x4
6647 control-d
6648
6649 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6650 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6651 external linkage.
6652
6653 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6654 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6655
6656 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6657
6658 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6659 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6660 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6661 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6662 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6663 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6664
6665 * New DOS host serial code
6666
6667 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6668 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6669 a PC's serial port.
6670
6671 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6672
6673 * New "complete" command
6674
6675 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6676 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6677
6678 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6679
6680 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6681 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6682
6683 * Breakpoint hit counts
6684
6685 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6686 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6687 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6688 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6689 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6690 that breakpoint.
6691
6692 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6693
6694 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6695 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6696 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6697
6698 * Shared library breakpoints
6699
6700 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6701 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6702
6703 * Hardware watchpoints
6704
6705 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6706 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6707
6708 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6709
6710 * Annotations
6711
6712 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6713 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6714
6715 * Improved Irix 5 support
6716
6717 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6718
6719 * Improved HPPA support
6720
6721 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6722
6723 * New native configurations
6724
6725 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6726 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6727 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6728 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6729
6730 * New targets
6731
6732 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6733 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6734 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6735
6736 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6737
6738 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6739 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6740
6741 * Fixes
6742
6743 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6744 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6745
6746 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6747
6748 * Irix 5 is now supported
6749
6750 * HPPA support
6751
6752 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6753 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6754 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6755 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6756 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6757
6758
6759 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6760
6761 * User visible changes:
6762
6763 * Remote Debugging
6764
6765 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6766 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6767 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6768 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6769 debugging info for the mips target).
6770
6771 * DEC Alpha native support
6772
6773 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6774 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6775 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6776 Alpha-specific notes.
6777
6778 * Preliminary thread implementation
6779
6780 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6781
6782 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6783
6784 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6785 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6786 for details).
6787
6788 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6789
6790 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6791 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6792 call methods, ...etc.
6793
6794 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6795
6796 * User visible changes:
6797
6798 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6799 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6800 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6801 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6802
6803 Filename completion now works.
6804
6805 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6806 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6807 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6808
6809 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6810 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6811 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6812 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6813 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6814
6815 * DEC alpha support
6816
6817 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6818 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6819
6820
6821 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6822
6823 * Testsuite
6824
6825 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6826 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6827 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6828
6829 * C++ demangling
6830
6831 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6832 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6833 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6834 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6835 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6836
6837 * Simulators
6838
6839 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6840 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6841 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6842
6843 * New targets supported
6844
6845 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6846 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6847 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6848 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6849 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6850
6851 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6852 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6853 GO32 memory extender.
6854
6855 * New remote protocols
6856
6857 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6858
6859 * New source languages supported
6860
6861 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6862 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6863 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6864
6865
6866 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6867
6868 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6869
6870 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6871 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6872 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6873 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6874 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6875 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6876
6877 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6878
6879 * Faster and better demangling
6880
6881 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6882 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6883 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6884 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6885 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6886 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6887 symbol lookups.
6888
6889 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6890 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6891 compiler does not actually implement.
6892
6893 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6894
6895 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6896 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6897 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6898 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6899 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6900 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6901 fix.
6902
6903 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6904 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6905
6906 * Improved configure script
6907
6908 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6909 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6910 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6911 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6912
6913 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6914 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6915 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6916 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6917 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6918 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6919
6920 * Documentation improvements
6921
6922 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6923 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6924 before submitting changes.
6925
6926 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6927 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6928 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6929 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6930 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6931
6932 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6933 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6934 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6935 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6936 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6937 around this problem.
6938
6939 * New features
6940
6941 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6942 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6943 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6944 the target program.
6945
6946 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6947 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6948
6949 * New native hosts supported
6950
6951 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6952 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6953
6954 * New targets supported
6955
6956 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6957
6958 * New file formats supported
6959
6960 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6961 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6962
6963 * Major bug fixes
6964
6965 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6966
6967 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6968 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6969
6970 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6971 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6972 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6973
6974 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6975 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6976
6977 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6978 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6979 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6980 libraries.
6981
6982 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6983 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6984 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6985 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6986 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6987
6988 * Internal improvements
6989
6990 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6991 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6992
6993 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6994 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6995 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6996 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6997 shared code that handles any of them.
6998
6999 * New command line options
7000
7001 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7002
7003 * Mmalloc licensing
7004
7005 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7006 General Public License.
7007
7008 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7009
7010 * Host/native/target split
7011
7012 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7013 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7014 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7015 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7016 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7017
7018 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7019 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7020 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7021 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7022 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7023 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7024 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7025
7026 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7027 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7028 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7029
7030 * New hosts supported
7031
7032 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7033 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7034 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7035
7036 * New targets supported
7037
7038 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7039 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7040
7041 * New native hosts supported
7042
7043 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7044 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7045 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7046
7047 * New file formats supported
7048
7049 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7050 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7051 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7052
7053 * New commands
7054
7055 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7056 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7057 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7058
7059 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7060
7061 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7062 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7063 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7064 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7065
7066 * C++ improvements
7067
7068 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7069 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7070 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7071
7072 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7073
7074 * Major bug fixes
7075
7076 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7077 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7078 by the compiler.
7079
7080 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7081 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7082
7083 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7084 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7085 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7086 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7087 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7088 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7089
7090 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7091 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7092 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7093 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7094
7095 * AMD 29k support
7096
7097 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7098 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7099 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7100 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7101 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7102
7103 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7104 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7105 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7106 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7107
7108 * Remote interfaces
7109
7110 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7111 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7112 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7113 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7114 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7115 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7116 each instruction being stepped through.
7117
7118 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7119 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7120
7121 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7122 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7123 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7124 processor with a serial port.
7125
7126 * Configuration
7127
7128 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7129 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7130 supported, and what files each one uses.
7131
7132 * Library changes
7133
7134 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7135 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7136 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7137 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7138
7139 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7140 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7141 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7142 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7143
7144 * Documentation
7145
7146 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7147 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7148 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7149 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7150 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7151 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7152
7153 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7154
7155
7156 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7157
7158 * Better support for C++ function names
7159
7160 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7161 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7162 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7163 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7164 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7165
7166 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7167 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7168 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7169 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7170 for the list of formats.
7171
7172 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7173
7174 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7175 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7176 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7177 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
7178 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7179 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7180 this problem.)
7181
7182 * New 'maintenance' command
7183
7184 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7185 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7186 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7187
7188 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7189 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7190 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7191 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7192 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7193 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7194
7195 The following commands are new:
7196
7197 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7198 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7199 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7200
7201 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7202
7203 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7204 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7205 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7206 read after argv processing.
7207
7208 * New hosts supported
7209
7210 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7211
7212 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7213
7214 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7215 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7216 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7217 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7218 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7219 It costs extra.
7220
7221 * New targets supported
7222
7223 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7224
7225 * More smarts about finding #include files
7226
7227 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7228 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7229 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7230 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7231 the one that contains your sources.
7232
7233 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7234 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7235 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7236
7237 * Interesting infernals change
7238
7239 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7240 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7241 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7242 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7243
7244 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7245
7246 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7247 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7248 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7249
7250 See the ChangeLog for details.
7251
7252 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7253
7254 * New machines supported (host and target)
7255
7256 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7257
7258 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7259
7260 * New malloc package
7261
7262 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7263 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
7264 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7265 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7266 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7267 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7268
7269 * info proc
7270
7271 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7272 'help info proc' for details.
7273
7274 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7275
7276 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7277 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7278 possible.
7279
7280 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7281
7282 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7283 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7284 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7285 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7286 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7287 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7288
7289 * Cross byte order fixes
7290
7291 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7292 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7293
7294 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7295
7296 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7297 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7298 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7299 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7300 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7301 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7302 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7303 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7304 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7305 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7306
7307 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7308 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7309 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7310 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7311
7312 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7313 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7314 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7315 use is:
7316
7317 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7318
7319 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7320 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7321 shared across multiple host platforms.
7322
7323 * longjmp() handling
7324
7325 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7326 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7327 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7328 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7329
7330 * Solaris 2.0
7331
7332 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7333 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7334 reading symbols.
7335
7336 * Bug fixes
7337
7338 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7339 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7340 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7341
7342 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7343
7344 * New machines supported (host and target)
7345
7346 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7347 (except core files)
7348 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7349 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7350
7351 * New machines supported (target)
7352
7353 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7354
7355 * C++ support
7356
7357 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7358 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7359 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7360
7361 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7362 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7363 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7364 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7365 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7366 released.
7367
7368 * New features for SVR4
7369
7370 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7371 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7372 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7373
7374 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7375 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7376 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7377
7378 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7379 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7380
7381 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7382
7383 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7384 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7385 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7386 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7387 same code linked statically.
7388
7389 * New Getopt
7390
7391 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7392 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7393 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7394 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7395 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7396 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7397
7398 * Bugs fixed
7399
7400 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7401 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7402 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7403
7404
7405 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7406
7407 * New machines supported (host and target)
7408
7409 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7410 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7411 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7412
7413 * Almost SCO Unix support
7414
7415 We had hoped to support:
7416 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7417 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7418 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7419 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7420
7421 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7422
7423 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7424 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7425 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7426 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7427 reqired (if any).
7428
7429 * New Readline
7430
7431 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7432 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7433 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7434
7435 * Bugs fixed
7436
7437 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7438 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7439 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7440
7441 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7442
7443 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7444 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7445 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7446
7447 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7448 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7449 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7450 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7451 version 2.
7452
7453 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7454 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7455 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7456 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7457 situation somewhat.
7458
7459 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7460 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7461 methods.
7462
7463 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7464 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7465 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7466
7467
7468 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7469
7470 * Improved configuration
7471
7472 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7473 Porting BFD is simpler.
7474
7475 * Stepping improved
7476
7477 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7478 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7479 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7480 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7481
7482 * Bug fixing
7483
7484 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7485
7486 * New host supported (not target)
7487
7488 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7489
7490
7491 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7492
7493 * Multiple source language support
7494
7495 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7496 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7497 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7498 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7499 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7500 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7501
7502 * GDB and Modula-2
7503
7504 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7505 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7506 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7507 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7508
7509 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7510 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7511 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7512
7513 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7514 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7515
7516 * set write on/off
7517
7518 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7519 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7520 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7521 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7522 effect immediately.
7523
7524 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7525
7526 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7527 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7528 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7529 examining core files.
7530
7531 * set listsize
7532
7533 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7534 The default is 10.
7535
7536 * New machines supported (host and target)
7537
7538 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7539 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7540 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7541
7542 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7543
7544 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7545
7546 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7547
7548 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7549 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7550 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7551
7552 * New remote interfaces
7553
7554 AMD 29000 Adapt
7555 AMD 29000 Minimon
7556
7557
7558 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7559
7560 * New Facilities
7561
7562 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7563
7564 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7565 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7566 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7567 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7568 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7569 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7570 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7571 stub on the target system.
7572
7573 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7574
7575 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7576 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7577 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7578
7579 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7580 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7581
7582
7583 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7584
7585 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7586 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7587
7588 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7589 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7590 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7591
7592 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7593 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7594 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7595 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7596
7597 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7598 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7599 it is already running. Default is ON.
7600
7601 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7602 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7603 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7604 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7605 Default is ON.
7606
7607 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7608 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7609 or the value of the environment variable
7610 GDBHISTFILE.
7611
7612 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7613 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7614 HISTSIZE.
7615
7616 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7617 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7618 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7619
7620 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7621 history expansion will be performed on
7622 command line input. The default is OFF.
7623
7624 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7625 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7626 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7627
7628 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7629 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7630 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7631 variable TERM.
7632
7633 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7634 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7635 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7636 variable TERM.
7637
7638 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7639 ``set width'' instead.
7640
7641 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7642 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7643 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7644 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7645
7646 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7647 is OFF.
7648
7649 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7650 "raw" form if off.
7651
7652 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7653 like instructions.
7654
7655 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7656
7657
7658 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7659
7660 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7661 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7662 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7663 window.
7664
7665
7666 * Support for Shared Libraries
7667
7668 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7669 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7670 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7671 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7672 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7673 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7674 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7675 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7676
7677 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7678 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7679 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7680
7681 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7682
7683
7684 * Watchpoints
7685
7686 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7687 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7688 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7689 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7690 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7691 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7692
7693 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7694
7695 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7696
7697 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7698 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7699 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7700
7701
7702 * C++ multiple inheritance
7703
7704 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7705 for C++ programs.
7706
7707 * C++ exception handling
7708
7709 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7710 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7711 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7712 handler's context).
7713
7714 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7715 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7716 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7717
7718 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7719 current stack frame.
7720
7721
7722 * Minor command changes
7723
7724 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7725 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7726 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7727
7728 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7729 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7730 frames without printing.
7731
7732 * New directory command
7733
7734 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7735 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7736 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7737 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7738 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7739
7740 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7741
7742 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7743 for more details.
7744
7745 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7746 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7747 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7748 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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