1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.3:
6 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
8 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
9 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
12 * d10v `regs' command deprecated
14 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
15 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
19 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
20 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
21 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
22 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
23 data, for more informative profiling results.
25 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
27 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
28 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
29 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
31 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
34 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
35 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
36 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
37 in a subsequent -var-update.
39 * Multi-arched targets.
41 HP/PA HPUX11, 32bit ABI (partial) hppa*-*-hpux* except hppa*64*-*-hpux11*
43 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
45 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
46 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
47 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
50 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
51 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
52 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
53 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
54 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
55 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
56 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
57 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
58 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
59 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
60 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
61 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
62 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
64 * REMOVED configurations and files
67 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
68 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
69 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
70 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
71 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
72 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
74 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
75 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
76 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
77 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
78 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
79 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
81 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
83 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
84 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
85 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
86 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
87 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
89 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
91 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
93 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
94 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
95 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
96 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
97 shared libs like mad''.
99 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
101 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
102 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
103 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
104 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
106 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
108 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
109 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
112 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
113 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
115 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
116 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
118 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
119 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
120 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
121 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
123 * Multi-arched targets.
125 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
126 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
128 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
129 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
130 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
134 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
137 * New native configurations
139 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
140 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
141 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
142 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
144 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
146 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
147 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
148 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
151 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
152 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
153 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
154 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
155 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
156 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
157 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
158 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
159 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
160 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
162 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
163 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
167 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
169 * REMOVED configurations and files
171 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
172 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
173 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
174 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
175 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
177 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
179 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
181 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
182 commands. The default is 1024.
184 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
186 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
188 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
190 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
191 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
192 from a file into memory (restore).
194 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
196 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
197 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
198 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
200 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
208 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
209 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
210 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
212 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
213 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
214 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
216 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
217 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
218 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
220 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
221 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
222 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
224 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
226 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
228 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
229 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
230 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
231 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
232 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
233 (notably embedded) targets.
235 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
237 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
238 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
239 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
240 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
242 * New command line option
244 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
246 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
248 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
249 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
250 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
251 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
252 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
253 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
254 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
255 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
256 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
257 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
259 * Changes in ARM configurations.
261 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
262 configuration is fully multi-arch.
264 * New native configurations
266 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
267 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
268 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
269 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
273 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
275 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
277 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
278 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
279 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
282 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
283 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
284 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
285 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
286 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
288 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
290 * REMOVED configurations and files
292 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
294 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
295 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
296 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
297 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
298 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
299 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
300 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
301 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
302 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
303 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
304 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
306 * Changes to command line processing
308 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
309 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
311 * Changes to key bindings
313 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
315 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
317 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
319 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
322 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
324 Numerous documentation fixes.
326 Numerous testsuite fixes.
328 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
330 * New native configurations
332 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
333 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
334 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
335 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
337 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
341 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
343 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
345 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
347 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
348 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
349 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
350 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
351 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
353 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
354 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
355 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
356 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
357 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
358 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
359 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
360 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
362 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
363 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
365 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
366 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
367 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
370 * REMOVED configurations and files
372 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
373 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
375 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
379 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
381 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
382 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
387 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
389 * The MI enabled by default.
391 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
392 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
393 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
394 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
395 which is now deprecated.
397 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
399 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
400 main features are supported:
402 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
404 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
407 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
409 - a Pascal expression parser.
411 However, some important features are not yet supported.
413 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
415 - there are some problems with boolean types;
417 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
418 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
420 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
422 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
424 * Changes in completion.
426 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
427 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
428 users expect at the shell prompt.
430 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
431 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
432 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
433 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
434 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
435 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
436 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
438 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
440 * New platform-independent commands:
442 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
443 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
444 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
446 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
448 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
449 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
450 many threads as your system allows you to have.
452 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
454 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
455 multi-threaded programs though.
457 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
459 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
461 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
462 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
465 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
467 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
468 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
469 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
470 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
471 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
474 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
475 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
476 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
478 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
480 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
481 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
483 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
484 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
487 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
488 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
489 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
490 a given linear address.
492 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
493 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
494 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
496 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
498 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
500 * Changes in documentation.
502 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
503 Documentation License.
505 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
508 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
510 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
513 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
514 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
515 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
517 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
519 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
520 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
521 contents of this file.
525 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
527 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
529 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
531 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
532 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
533 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
534 greater level of detail.
536 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
538 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
539 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
540 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
543 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
545 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
546 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
547 machines ``out of the box''.
549 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
550 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
551 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
552 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
553 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
555 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
556 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
557 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
558 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
559 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
561 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
562 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
565 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
568 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
569 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
570 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
571 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
573 * New native configurations
575 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
576 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
580 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
581 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
582 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
583 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
585 * OBSOLETE configurations
587 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
588 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
590 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
593 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
594 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
595 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
596 be permanently REMOVED.
598 * Gould support removed
600 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
602 * New features for SVR4
604 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
605 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
606 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
608 * Many C++ enhancements
610 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
611 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
613 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
615 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
616 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
617 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
618 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
620 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
621 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
623 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
625 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
626 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
627 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
629 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
630 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
632 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
634 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
635 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
636 include ``set remote P-packet''.
638 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
640 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
641 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
642 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
644 * ``apropos'' command added.
646 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
647 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
648 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
652 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
653 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
654 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
655 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
656 enabled by configuring with:
658 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
660 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
662 * New native configurations
664 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
665 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
666 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
670 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
671 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
672 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
674 * OBSOLETE configurations
676 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
678 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
679 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
680 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
681 be permanently REMOVED.
685 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
686 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
687 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
688 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
689 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
690 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
691 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
696 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
698 * set extension-language
700 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
701 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
702 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
703 set extension-language .c c++
704 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
705 and their associated languages.
707 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
709 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
710 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
711 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
715 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
716 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
718 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
719 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
721 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
722 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
723 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
724 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
725 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
726 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
727 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
728 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
730 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
731 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
732 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
733 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
737 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
738 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
739 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
740 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
741 for xdb and dbx commands.
745 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
746 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
747 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
749 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
750 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
751 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
753 * Debugging across forks
755 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
760 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
761 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
762 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
764 * GDB remote protocol additions
766 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
767 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
768 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
769 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
771 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
772 full 64-bit address. The command
774 set remoteaddresssize 32
776 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
777 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
780 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
781 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
783 maint packet heythere
785 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
786 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
789 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
790 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
791 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
793 * Tracing can collect general expressions
795 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
796 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
797 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
799 * mask-address variable for Mips
801 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
802 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
803 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
805 * Higher serial baud rates
807 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
808 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
809 to achieve all of these rates.)
813 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
814 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
817 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
819 * New native configurations
821 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
822 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
823 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
824 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
825 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
826 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
827 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
831 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
832 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
833 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
834 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
835 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
836 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
837 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
838 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
839 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
840 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
841 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
843 * New debugging protocols
845 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
846 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
847 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
848 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
849 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
850 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
854 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
855 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
860 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
861 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
863 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
865 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
866 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
867 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
869 * Live range splitting
871 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
872 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
873 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
877 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
878 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
882 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
883 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
884 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
889 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
894 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
895 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
896 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
897 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
898 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
899 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
903 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
904 the symbol at the specified address.
908 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
909 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
910 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
911 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
912 file tracepoint.c for more details.
916 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
917 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
918 of most MIPS variants.
922 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
923 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
924 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
928 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
929 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
930 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
931 the possible architectures.
933 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
935 * New native configurations
937 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
938 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
939 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
940 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
941 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
942 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
946 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
947 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
948 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
949 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
950 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
952 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
956 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
957 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
958 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
959 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
960 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
964 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
966 * Windows 95/NT native
968 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
969 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
970 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
971 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
972 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
974 * dont-repeat command
976 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
977 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
978 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
979 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
981 * Send break instead of ^C
983 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
984 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
985 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
987 * Remote protocol timeout
989 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
990 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
991 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
993 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
995 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
996 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
997 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
998 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
999 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1001 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1002 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1003 automatically on hpux10.
1005 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1007 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1009 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1011 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1012 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1013 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1014 every character. The default value is 1050.
1016 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1018 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1019 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1020 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1021 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1022 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1023 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1025 * Speedups for remote debugging
1027 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1028 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1029 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1031 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1033 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1034 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1036 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1038 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1040 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1041 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1043 * Remote targets use caching
1045 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1046 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1047 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1048 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1049 off' turns the the data cache off.
1051 * Remote targets may have threads
1053 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1054 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1055 gdb/remote.c for details.
1059 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1060 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1061 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1062 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1063 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1064 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1065 sequence is something like
1067 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1069 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1073 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1074 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1075 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1076 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1077 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1078 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1079 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1080 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1084 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1085 but does simplify configuration and building.
1089 GDB now supports hpux10.
1091 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1093 * New native configurations
1095 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1096 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1097 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1098 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1102 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1103 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1104 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1105 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1108 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1110 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1111 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1112 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1113 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1114 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1116 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1118 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1119 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1122 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1124 To execute the command use:
1127 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1128 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1129 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1131 * New `if' and `while' commands
1133 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1134 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1135 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1136 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1137 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1138 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1139 if the expression is zero.
1141 * Fortran source language mode
1143 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1144 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1145 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1146 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1149 * Better HPUX support
1151 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1152 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1153 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1154 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1155 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1161 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1162 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1168 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1169 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1172 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1173 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1175 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1177 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1178 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1179 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1180 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1181 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1182 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1184 * New DOS host serial code
1186 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1187 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1190 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1192 * New "complete" command
1194 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1195 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1197 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1199 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1200 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1202 * Breakpoint hit counts
1204 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1205 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1206 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1207 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1208 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1211 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1213 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1214 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1215 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1217 * Shared library breakpoints
1219 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1220 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1222 * Hardware watchpoints
1224 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1225 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1227 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1231 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1232 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1234 * Improved Irix 5 support
1236 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1238 * Improved HPPA support
1240 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1242 * New native configurations
1244 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1245 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1246 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1247 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1251 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1252 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1255 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1257 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1258 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1262 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1263 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1265 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1267 * Irix 5 is now supported
1271 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1272 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1273 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1274 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1275 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1278 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1280 * User visible changes:
1284 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1285 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1286 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1287 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1288 debugging info for the mips target).
1290 * DEC Alpha native support
1292 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1293 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1294 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1295 Alpha-specific notes.
1297 * Preliminary thread implementation
1299 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1301 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1303 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1304 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1307 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1309 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1310 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1311 call methods, ...etc.
1313 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1315 * User visible changes:
1317 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1318 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1319 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1320 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1322 Filename completion now works.
1324 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1325 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1326 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1328 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1329 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1330 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1331 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1332 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1336 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1337 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1340 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1344 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1345 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1346 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1350 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1351 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1352 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1353 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1354 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1358 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1359 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1360 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1362 * New targets supported
1364 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1365 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1366 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1367 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1368 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1370 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1371 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1372 GO32 memory extender.
1374 * New remote protocols
1376 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1378 * New source languages supported
1380 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1381 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1382 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1385 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1387 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1389 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1390 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1391 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1392 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1393 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1394 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1396 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1398 * Faster and better demangling
1400 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1401 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1402 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1403 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1404 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1405 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1408 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1409 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1410 compiler does not actually implement.
1412 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1414 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1415 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1416 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1417 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1418 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1419 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1422 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1423 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1425 * Improved configure script
1427 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1428 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1429 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1430 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1432 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1433 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1434 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1435 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1436 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1437 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1439 * Documentation improvements
1441 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1442 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1443 before submitting changes.
1445 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1446 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1447 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1448 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1449 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1451 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1452 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1453 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1454 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1455 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1456 around this problem.
1460 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1461 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1462 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1465 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1466 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1468 * New native hosts supported
1470 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1471 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1473 * New targets supported
1475 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1477 * New file formats supported
1479 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1480 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1484 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1486 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1487 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1489 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1490 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1491 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1493 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1494 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1496 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1497 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1498 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1501 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1502 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1503 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1504 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1505 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1507 * Internal improvements
1509 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1510 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1512 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1513 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1514 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1515 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1516 shared code that handles any of them.
1518 * New command line options
1520 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1524 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1525 General Public License.
1527 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1529 * Host/native/target split
1531 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1532 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1533 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1534 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1535 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1537 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1538 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1539 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1540 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1541 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1542 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1543 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1545 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1546 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1547 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1549 * New hosts supported
1551 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1552 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1553 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1555 * New targets supported
1557 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1558 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1560 * New native hosts supported
1562 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1563 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1564 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1566 * New file formats supported
1568 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1569 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1570 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1574 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1575 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1576 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1578 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1580 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1581 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1582 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1583 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1587 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1588 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1589 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1591 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1595 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1596 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1599 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1600 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1602 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1603 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1604 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1605 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1606 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1607 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1609 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1610 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1611 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1612 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1616 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1617 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1618 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1619 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1620 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1622 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1623 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1624 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1625 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1629 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1630 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1631 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1632 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1633 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1634 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1635 each instruction being stepped through.
1637 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1638 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1640 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1641 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1642 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1643 processor with a serial port.
1647 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1648 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1649 supported, and what files each one uses.
1653 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1654 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1655 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1656 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1658 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1659 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1660 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1661 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1665 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1666 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1667 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1668 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1669 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1670 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1672 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1675 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1677 * Better support for C++ function names
1679 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1680 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1681 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1682 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1683 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1685 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1686 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1687 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1688 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1689 for the list of formats.
1691 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1693 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1694 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1695 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1696 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1697 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1698 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1701 * New 'maintenance' command
1703 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1704 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1705 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1707 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1708 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1709 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1710 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1711 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1712 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1714 The following commands are new:
1716 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1717 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1718 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1720 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1722 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1723 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1724 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1725 read after argv processing.
1727 * New hosts supported
1729 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1731 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1733 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1734 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1735 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1736 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1737 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1740 * New targets supported
1742 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1744 * More smarts about finding #include files
1746 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1747 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1748 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1749 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1750 the one that contains your sources.
1752 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1753 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1754 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1756 * Interesting infernals change
1758 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1759 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1760 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1761 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1763 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1765 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1766 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1767 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1769 See the ChangeLog for details.
1771 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1773 * New machines supported (host and target)
1775 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1777 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1779 * New malloc package
1781 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1782 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1783 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1784 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1785 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1786 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1790 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1791 'help info proc' for details.
1793 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1795 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1796 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1799 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1801 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1802 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1803 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1804 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1805 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1806 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1808 * Cross byte order fixes
1810 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1811 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1813 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1815 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1816 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1817 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1818 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1819 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1820 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1821 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1822 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1823 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1824 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1826 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1827 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1828 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1829 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1831 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1832 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1833 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1836 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1838 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1839 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1840 shared across multiple host platforms.
1842 * longjmp() handling
1844 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1845 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1846 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1847 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1851 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1852 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1857 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1858 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1859 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1861 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1863 * New machines supported (host and target)
1865 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1867 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1868 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1870 * New machines supported (target)
1872 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1876 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1877 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1878 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1880 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1881 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1882 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1883 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1884 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1887 * New features for SVR4
1889 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1890 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1891 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1893 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1894 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1895 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1897 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1898 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1900 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1902 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1903 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1904 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1905 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1906 same code linked statically.
1910 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1911 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1912 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1913 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1914 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1915 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1919 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1920 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1921 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1924 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1926 * New machines supported (host and target)
1928 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1929 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1930 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1932 * Almost SCO Unix support
1934 We had hoped to support:
1935 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1936 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1937 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1938 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1940 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1942 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1943 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1944 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1945 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1950 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1951 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1952 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1956 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1957 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1958 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1960 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1962 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1963 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1964 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1966 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1967 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1968 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1969 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1972 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1973 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1974 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1975 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1978 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1979 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1982 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1983 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1984 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1987 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1989 * Improved configuration
1991 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1992 Porting BFD is simpler.
1996 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1997 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1998 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1999 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2003 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2005 * New host supported (not target)
2007 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2010 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2012 * Multiple source language support
2014 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2015 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2016 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2017 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2018 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2019 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2023 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2024 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2025 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2026 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2028 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2029 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2030 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2032 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2033 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2037 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2038 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2039 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2040 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2043 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2045 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2046 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2047 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2048 examining core files.
2052 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2055 * New machines supported (host and target)
2057 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2058 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2059 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2061 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2063 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2065 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2067 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2068 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2069 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2071 * New remote interfaces
2077 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2081 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2083 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2084 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2085 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2086 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2087 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2088 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2089 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2090 stub on the target system.
2092 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2094 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2095 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2096 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2098 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2099 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2102 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2104 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2105 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2107 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2108 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2109 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2111 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2112 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2113 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2114 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2116 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2117 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2118 it is already running. Default is ON.
2120 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2121 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2122 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2123 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2126 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2127 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2128 or the value of the environment variable
2131 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2132 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2135 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2136 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2137 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2139 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2140 history expansion will be performed on
2141 command line input. The default is OFF.
2143 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2144 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2145 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2147 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2148 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2149 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2152 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2153 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2154 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2157 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2158 ``set width'' instead.
2160 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2161 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2162 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2163 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2165 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2168 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2171 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2174 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2177 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2179 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2180 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2181 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2185 * Support for Shared Libraries
2187 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2188 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2189 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2190 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2191 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2192 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2193 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2194 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2196 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2197 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2198 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2200 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2205 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2206 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2207 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2208 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2209 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2210 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2212 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2214 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2216 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2217 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2218 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2221 * C++ multiple inheritance
2223 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2226 * C++ exception handling
2228 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2229 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2230 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2233 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2234 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2235 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2237 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2238 current stack frame.
2241 * Minor command changes
2243 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2244 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2245 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2247 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2248 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2249 frames without printing.
2251 * New directory command
2253 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2254 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2255 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2256 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2257 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2259 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2261 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2264 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2265 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2266 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2267 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob