1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.6
6 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
7 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
9 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
10 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
12 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
14 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
15 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
16 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
18 * Arrays of explicitly SIGNED or UNSIGNED CHARs are now printed as arrays
21 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
22 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
25 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
28 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
29 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
30 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
34 set mem inaccessible-by-default
35 show mem inaccessible-by-default
36 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
37 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
38 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
39 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
40 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
42 set breakpoint auto-hw
43 show breakpoint auto-hw
44 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
45 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
46 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
47 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
48 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
49 including "next" and "finish".
52 catch exception unhandled
53 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
56 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
60 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
61 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
62 an alias to "set sysroot".
64 * New native configurations
66 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
71 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
72 not query the target for its built-in description.
76 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
77 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
78 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
83 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
84 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
87 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
92 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
101 i[34567]86-*-netware*
102 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
103 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
105 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
108 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
109 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
118 * Other removed features
125 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
132 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
137 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
138 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
143 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
144 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
146 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
148 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
149 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
150 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
151 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
155 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
156 in debugging information.
160 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
161 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
163 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
168 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
170 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
171 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
172 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
174 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
175 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
178 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
179 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
181 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
182 stub provides the required support.
184 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
185 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
190 unset substitute-path
192 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
193 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
194 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
195 between compilation and debugging.
199 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
200 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
201 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
205 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
207 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
208 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
210 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
215 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
216 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
217 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
218 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
222 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
223 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
225 qXfer:memory-map:read:
226 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
227 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
232 Erase and program a flash memory device.
234 * Removed remote packets
237 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
238 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
240 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
244 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
246 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
250 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
251 only if it doesn't already have a value.
253 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
255 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
257 restart <n> Return the program state to a
258 previously saved state.
260 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
262 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
264 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
265 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
267 info forks List forks of the user program that
268 are available to be debugged.
270 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
271 forks of the user program that are
272 available to be debugged.
274 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
275 that are available to be debugged (and
276 kill the forked process).
278 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
279 that are available to be debugged (and
280 allow the process to continue).
284 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
286 * Improved Windows host support
288 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
289 native console support, and remote communications using either
290 network sockets or serial ports.
292 * Improved Modula-2 language support
294 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
295 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
296 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
297 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
298 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
299 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
303 The ARM rdi-share module.
305 The Netware NLM debug server.
307 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
309 * New native configurations
311 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
312 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
316 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
318 * New command line options
320 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
321 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
322 the child (debugged) program exited with.
323 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
324 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
325 specified multiple times and in conjunction
326 with the --command (-x) option.
328 * Deprecated commands removed
330 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
334 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
335 othernames set arm disassembler
336 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
337 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
338 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
341 * New BSD user-level threads support
343 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
344 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
347 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
348 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
349 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
351 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
352 are not yet supported.
354 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
355 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
357 * REMOVED configurations and files
359 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
360 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
361 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
363 * New "set print array-indexes" command
365 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
366 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
369 * VAX floating point support
371 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
373 * User-defined command support
375 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
376 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
377 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
379 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
381 * New command line option
383 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
386 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
388 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
389 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
390 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
391 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
392 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
394 * Internationalization
396 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
397 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
398 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
402 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
403 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
404 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
406 * New native configurations
408 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
412 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
413 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
415 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
417 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
418 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
419 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
422 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
423 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
424 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
436 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
437 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
439 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
441 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
442 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
443 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
453 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
455 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
457 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
458 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
461 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
463 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
464 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
465 IRIX long double values).
469 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
470 command. This problem has been fixed.
472 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
474 * Fix for ``many threads''
476 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
477 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
480 ptrace: No such process.
481 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
483 This problem has been fixed.
485 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
487 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
490 * New ``start'' command.
492 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
494 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
496 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
497 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
498 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
500 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
501 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
502 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
503 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
504 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
505 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
506 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
507 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
508 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
510 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
512 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
513 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
514 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
515 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
516 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
518 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
519 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
520 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
522 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
524 * New native configurations
526 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
527 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
528 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
529 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
530 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
531 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
532 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
534 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
536 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
537 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
538 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
539 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
540 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
541 work, was also included.
543 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
544 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
554 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
555 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
557 * REMOVED configurations and files
559 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
560 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
561 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
562 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
563 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
564 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
565 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
566 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
567 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
569 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
571 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
573 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
575 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
576 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
577 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
578 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
581 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
583 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
584 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
585 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
586 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
587 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
588 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
591 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
593 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
595 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
596 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
597 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
599 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
601 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
602 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
604 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
606 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
607 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
608 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
610 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
612 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
613 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
615 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
617 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
618 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
619 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
621 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
623 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
624 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
625 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
627 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
629 * Removed --with-mmalloc
631 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
632 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
634 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
636 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
637 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
638 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
639 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
641 * Revised SPARC target
643 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
644 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
645 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
646 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
647 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
651 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
652 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
653 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
656 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
658 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
659 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
662 * C++ nested types and namespaces
664 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
665 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
666 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
667 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
668 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
669 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
670 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
671 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
672 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
674 * New native configurations
676 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
677 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
678 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
679 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
680 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
682 * New debugging protocols
684 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
686 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
688 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
689 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
690 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
692 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
694 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
695 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
696 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
699 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
700 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
701 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
702 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
703 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
704 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
705 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
706 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
707 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
709 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
711 * REMOVED configurations and files
713 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
714 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
715 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
716 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
717 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
718 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
719 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
720 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
721 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
722 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
723 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
724 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
725 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
726 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
727 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
728 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
729 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
731 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
735 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
738 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
740 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
741 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
742 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
745 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
746 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
751 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
752 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
753 remote protocol documentation for details.
755 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
757 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
758 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
759 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
762 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
764 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
765 per-thread variables.
767 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
769 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
770 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
772 * Separate debug info.
774 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
775 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
776 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
777 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
778 and optional debug files.
780 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
782 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
783 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
786 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
787 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
791 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
792 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
793 considered "useable".
795 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
797 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
798 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
801 * GDB supports logging output to a file
803 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
804 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
806 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
808 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
809 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
812 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
814 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
815 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
819 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
820 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
821 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
822 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
823 data, for more informative profiling results.
825 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
827 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
828 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
829 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
831 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
834 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
835 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
836 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
837 in a subsequent -var-update.
839 * New native configurations.
841 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
843 * Multi-arched targets.
845 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
846 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
848 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
850 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
851 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
852 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
855 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
856 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
857 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
858 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
859 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
860 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
861 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
862 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
863 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
864 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
865 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
866 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
868 * REMOVED configurations and files
871 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
872 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
873 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
874 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
875 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
876 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
878 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
879 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
880 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
881 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
882 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
883 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
885 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
887 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
888 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
889 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
890 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
891 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
893 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
895 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
897 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
898 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
899 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
900 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
901 shared libs like mad''.
903 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
905 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
906 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
907 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
908 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
910 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
912 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
913 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
916 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
917 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
919 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
920 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
922 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
923 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
924 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
925 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
927 * Multi-arched targets.
929 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
930 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
932 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
933 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
934 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
938 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
941 * New native configurations
943 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
944 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
945 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
946 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
948 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
950 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
951 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
952 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
955 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
956 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
957 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
958 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
959 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
960 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
961 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
962 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
963 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
964 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
966 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
967 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
971 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
973 * REMOVED configurations and files
975 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
976 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
977 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
978 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
979 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
981 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
983 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
985 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
986 commands. The default is 1024.
988 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
990 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
992 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
994 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
995 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
996 from a file into memory (restore).
998 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1000 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1001 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1002 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1004 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1012 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1013 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1014 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1016 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1017 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1018 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1020 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1021 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1022 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1024 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1025 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1026 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1028 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1030 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1032 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1033 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1034 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1035 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1036 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1037 (notably embedded) targets.
1039 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1041 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1042 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1043 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1044 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1046 * New command line option
1048 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1050 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1052 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1053 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1054 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1055 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1056 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1057 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1058 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1059 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1060 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1061 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1063 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1065 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1066 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1068 * New native configurations
1070 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1071 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1072 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1073 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1077 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1079 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1081 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1082 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1083 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1084 permanently REMOVED.
1086 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1087 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1088 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1089 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1090 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1092 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1094 * REMOVED configurations and files
1096 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1098 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1099 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1100 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1101 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1102 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1103 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1104 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1105 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1106 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1107 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1108 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1110 * Changes to command line processing
1112 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1113 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1115 * Changes to key bindings
1117 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1119 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1121 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1123 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1126 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1128 Numerous documentation fixes.
1130 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1132 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1134 * New native configurations
1136 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1137 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1138 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1139 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1140 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1141 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1145 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1147 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1149 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1151 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1152 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1153 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1154 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1155 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1157 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1158 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1159 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1160 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1161 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1162 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1163 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1164 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1166 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1167 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1169 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1170 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1171 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1172 permanently REMOVED.
1174 * REMOVED configurations and files
1176 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1177 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1179 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1183 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1185 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1186 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1191 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1193 * The MI enabled by default.
1195 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1196 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1197 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1198 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1199 which is now deprecated.
1201 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1203 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1204 main features are supported:
1206 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1208 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1211 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1213 - a Pascal expression parser.
1215 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1217 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1219 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1221 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1222 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1224 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1226 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1228 * Changes in completion.
1230 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1231 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1232 users expect at the shell prompt.
1234 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1235 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1236 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1237 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1238 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1239 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1240 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1242 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1244 * New platform-independent commands:
1246 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1247 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1248 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1250 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1252 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1253 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1254 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1256 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1258 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1259 multi-threaded programs though.
1261 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1263 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1265 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1266 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1269 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1271 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1272 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1273 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1274 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1275 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1278 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1279 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1280 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1282 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1284 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1285 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1287 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1288 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1291 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1292 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1293 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1294 a given linear address.
1296 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1297 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1298 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1300 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1302 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1304 * Changes in documentation.
1306 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1307 Documentation License.
1309 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1312 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1314 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1317 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1318 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1319 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1321 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1323 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1324 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1325 contents of this file.
1329 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1331 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1333 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1335 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1336 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1337 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1338 greater level of detail.
1340 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1342 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1343 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1344 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1347 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1349 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1350 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1351 machines ``out of the box''.
1353 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1354 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1355 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1356 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1357 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1359 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1360 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1361 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1362 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1363 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1365 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1366 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1369 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1372 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1373 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1374 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1375 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1377 * New native configurations
1379 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1380 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1384 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1385 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1386 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1387 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1389 * OBSOLETE configurations
1391 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1392 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1394 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1397 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1398 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1399 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1400 be permanently REMOVED.
1402 * Gould support removed
1404 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1406 * New features for SVR4
1408 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1409 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1410 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1412 * Many C++ enhancements
1414 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1415 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1417 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1419 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1420 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1421 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1422 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1424 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1425 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1427 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1429 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1430 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1431 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1433 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1434 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1436 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1438 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1439 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1440 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1442 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1444 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1445 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1446 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1448 * ``apropos'' command added.
1450 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1451 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1452 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1456 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1457 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1458 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1459 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1460 enabled by configuring with:
1462 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1464 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1466 * New native configurations
1468 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1469 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1470 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1474 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1475 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1476 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1478 * OBSOLETE configurations
1480 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1482 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1483 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1484 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1485 be permanently REMOVED.
1489 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1490 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1491 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1492 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1493 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1494 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1495 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1500 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1502 * set extension-language
1504 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1505 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1506 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1507 set extension-language .c c++
1508 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1509 and their associated languages.
1511 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1513 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1514 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1515 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1519 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1520 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1522 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1523 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1525 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1526 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1527 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1528 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1529 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1530 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1531 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1532 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1534 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1535 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1536 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1537 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1541 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1542 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1543 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1544 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1545 for xdb and dbx commands.
1549 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1550 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1551 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1553 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1554 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1555 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1557 * Debugging across forks
1559 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1564 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1565 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1566 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1568 * GDB remote protocol additions
1570 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1571 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1572 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1573 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1575 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1576 full 64-bit address. The command
1578 set remoteaddresssize 32
1580 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1581 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1584 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1585 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1587 maint packet heythere
1589 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1590 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1593 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1594 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1595 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1597 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1599 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1600 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1601 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1603 * mask-address variable for Mips
1605 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1606 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1607 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1609 * Higher serial baud rates
1611 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1612 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1613 to achieve all of these rates.)
1617 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1618 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1621 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1623 * New native configurations
1625 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1626 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1627 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1628 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1629 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1630 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1631 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1635 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1636 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1637 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1638 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1639 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1640 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1641 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1642 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1643 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1644 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1645 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1647 * New debugging protocols
1649 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1650 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1651 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1652 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1653 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1654 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1658 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1659 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1664 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1665 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1667 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1669 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1670 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1671 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1673 * Live range splitting
1675 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1676 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1677 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1681 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1682 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1686 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1687 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1688 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1693 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1698 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1699 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1700 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1701 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1702 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1703 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1707 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1708 the symbol at the specified address.
1712 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1713 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1714 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1715 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1716 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1720 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1721 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1722 of most MIPS variants.
1726 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1727 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1728 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1732 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1733 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1734 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1735 the possible architectures.
1737 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1739 * New native configurations
1741 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1742 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1743 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1744 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1745 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1746 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1750 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1751 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1752 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1753 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1754 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1756 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1760 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1761 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1762 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1763 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1764 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1768 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1770 * Windows 95/NT native
1772 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1773 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1774 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1775 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1776 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1778 * dont-repeat command
1780 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1781 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1782 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1783 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1785 * Send break instead of ^C
1787 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1788 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1789 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1791 * Remote protocol timeout
1793 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1794 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1795 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1797 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1799 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1800 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1801 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1802 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1803 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1805 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1806 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1807 automatically on hpux10.
1809 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1811 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1813 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1815 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1816 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1817 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1818 every character. The default value is 1050.
1820 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1822 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1823 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1824 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1825 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1826 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1827 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1829 * Speedups for remote debugging
1831 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1832 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1833 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1835 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1837 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1838 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1840 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1842 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1844 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1845 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1847 * Remote targets use caching
1849 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1850 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1851 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1852 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1853 off' turns the the data cache off.
1855 * Remote targets may have threads
1857 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1858 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1859 gdb/remote.c for details.
1863 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1864 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1865 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1866 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1867 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1868 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1869 sequence is something like
1871 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1873 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1877 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1878 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1879 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1880 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1881 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1882 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1883 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1884 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1888 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1889 but does simplify configuration and building.
1893 GDB now supports hpux10.
1895 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1897 * New native configurations
1899 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1900 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1901 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1902 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1906 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1907 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1908 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1909 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1912 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1914 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1915 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1916 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1917 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1918 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1920 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1922 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1923 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1926 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1928 To execute the command use:
1931 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1932 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1933 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1935 * New `if' and `while' commands
1937 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1938 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1939 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1940 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1941 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1942 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1943 if the expression is zero.
1945 * Fortran source language mode
1947 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1948 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1949 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1950 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1953 * Better HPUX support
1955 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1956 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1957 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1958 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1959 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1965 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1966 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1972 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1973 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1976 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1977 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1979 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1981 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1982 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1983 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1984 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1985 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1986 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1988 * New DOS host serial code
1990 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1991 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1994 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1996 * New "complete" command
1998 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1999 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2001 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2003 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2004 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2006 * Breakpoint hit counts
2008 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2009 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2010 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2011 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2012 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2015 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2017 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2018 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2019 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2021 * Shared library breakpoints
2023 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2024 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2026 * Hardware watchpoints
2028 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2029 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2031 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2035 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2036 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2038 * Improved Irix 5 support
2040 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2042 * Improved HPPA support
2044 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2046 * New native configurations
2048 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2049 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2050 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2051 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2055 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2056 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2059 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2061 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2062 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2066 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2067 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2069 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2071 * Irix 5 is now supported
2075 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2076 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2077 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2078 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2079 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2082 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2084 * User visible changes:
2088 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2089 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2090 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2091 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2092 debugging info for the mips target).
2094 * DEC Alpha native support
2096 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2097 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2098 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2099 Alpha-specific notes.
2101 * Preliminary thread implementation
2103 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2105 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2107 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2108 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2111 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2113 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2114 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2115 call methods, ...etc.
2117 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2119 * User visible changes:
2121 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2122 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2123 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2124 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2126 Filename completion now works.
2128 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2129 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2130 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2132 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2133 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2134 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2135 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2136 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2140 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2141 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2144 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2148 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2149 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2150 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2154 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2155 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2156 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2157 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2158 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2162 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2163 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2164 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2166 * New targets supported
2168 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2169 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2170 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2171 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2172 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2174 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2175 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2176 GO32 memory extender.
2178 * New remote protocols
2180 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2182 * New source languages supported
2184 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2185 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2186 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2189 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2191 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2193 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2194 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2195 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2196 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2197 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2198 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2200 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2202 * Faster and better demangling
2204 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2205 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2206 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2207 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2208 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2209 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2212 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2213 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2214 compiler does not actually implement.
2216 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2218 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2219 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2220 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2221 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2222 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2223 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2226 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2227 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2229 * Improved configure script
2231 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2232 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2233 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2234 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2236 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2237 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2238 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2239 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2240 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2241 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2243 * Documentation improvements
2245 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2246 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2247 before submitting changes.
2249 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2250 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2251 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2252 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2253 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2255 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2256 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2257 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2258 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2259 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2260 around this problem.
2264 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2265 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2266 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2269 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2270 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2272 * New native hosts supported
2274 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2275 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2277 * New targets supported
2279 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2281 * New file formats supported
2283 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2284 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2288 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2290 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2291 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2293 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2294 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2295 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2297 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2298 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2300 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2301 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2302 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2305 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2306 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2307 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2308 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2309 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2311 * Internal improvements
2313 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2314 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2316 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2317 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2318 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2319 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2320 shared code that handles any of them.
2322 * New command line options
2324 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2328 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2329 General Public License.
2331 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2333 * Host/native/target split
2335 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2336 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2337 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2338 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2339 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2341 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2342 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2343 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2344 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2345 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2346 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2347 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2349 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2350 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2351 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2353 * New hosts supported
2355 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2356 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2357 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2359 * New targets supported
2361 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2362 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2364 * New native hosts supported
2366 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2367 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2368 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2370 * New file formats supported
2372 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2373 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2374 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2378 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2379 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2380 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2382 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2384 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2385 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2386 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2387 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2391 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2392 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2393 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2395 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2399 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2400 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2403 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2404 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2406 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2407 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2408 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2409 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2410 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2411 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2413 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2414 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2415 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2416 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2420 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2421 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2422 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2423 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2424 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2426 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2427 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2428 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2429 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2433 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2434 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2435 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2436 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2437 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2438 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2439 each instruction being stepped through.
2441 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2442 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2444 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2445 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2446 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2447 processor with a serial port.
2451 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2452 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2453 supported, and what files each one uses.
2457 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2458 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2459 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2460 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2462 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2463 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2464 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2465 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2469 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2470 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2471 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2472 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2473 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2474 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2476 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2479 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2481 * Better support for C++ function names
2483 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2484 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2485 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2486 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2487 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2489 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2490 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2491 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2492 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2493 for the list of formats.
2495 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2497 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2498 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2499 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2500 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2501 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2502 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2505 * New 'maintenance' command
2507 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2508 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2509 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2511 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2512 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2513 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2514 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2515 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2516 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2518 The following commands are new:
2520 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2521 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2522 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2524 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2526 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2527 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2528 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2529 read after argv processing.
2531 * New hosts supported
2533 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2535 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2537 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2538 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2539 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2540 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2541 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2544 * New targets supported
2546 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2548 * More smarts about finding #include files
2550 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2551 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2552 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2553 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2554 the one that contains your sources.
2556 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2557 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2558 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2560 * Interesting infernals change
2562 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2563 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2564 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2565 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2567 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2569 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2570 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2571 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2573 See the ChangeLog for details.
2575 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2577 * New machines supported (host and target)
2579 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2581 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2583 * New malloc package
2585 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2586 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2587 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2588 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2589 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2590 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2594 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2595 'help info proc' for details.
2597 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2599 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2600 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2603 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2605 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2606 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2607 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2608 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2609 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2610 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2612 * Cross byte order fixes
2614 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2615 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2617 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2619 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2620 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2621 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2622 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2623 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2624 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2625 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2626 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2627 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2628 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2630 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2631 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2632 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2633 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2635 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2636 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2637 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2640 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2642 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2643 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2644 shared across multiple host platforms.
2646 * longjmp() handling
2648 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2649 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2650 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2651 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2655 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2656 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2661 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2662 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2663 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2665 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2667 * New machines supported (host and target)
2669 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2671 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2672 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2674 * New machines supported (target)
2676 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2680 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2681 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2682 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2684 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2685 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2686 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2687 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2688 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2691 * New features for SVR4
2693 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2694 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2695 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2697 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2698 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2699 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2701 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2702 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2704 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2706 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2707 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2708 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2709 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2710 same code linked statically.
2714 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2715 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2716 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2717 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2718 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2719 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2723 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2724 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2725 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2728 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2730 * New machines supported (host and target)
2732 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2733 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2734 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2736 * Almost SCO Unix support
2738 We had hoped to support:
2739 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2740 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2741 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2742 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2744 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2746 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2747 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2748 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2749 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2754 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2755 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2756 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2760 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2761 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2762 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2764 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2766 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2767 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2768 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2770 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2771 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2772 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2773 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2776 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2777 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2778 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2779 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2782 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2783 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2786 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2787 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2788 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2791 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2793 * Improved configuration
2795 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2796 Porting BFD is simpler.
2800 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2801 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2802 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2803 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2807 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2809 * New host supported (not target)
2811 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2814 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2816 * Multiple source language support
2818 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2819 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2820 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2821 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2822 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2823 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2827 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2828 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2829 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2830 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2832 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2833 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2834 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2836 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2837 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2841 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2842 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2843 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2844 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2847 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2849 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2850 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2851 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2852 examining core files.
2856 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2859 * New machines supported (host and target)
2861 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2862 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2863 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2865 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2867 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2869 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2871 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2872 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2873 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2875 * New remote interfaces
2881 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2885 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2887 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2888 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2889 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2890 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2891 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2892 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2893 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2894 stub on the target system.
2896 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2898 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2899 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2900 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2902 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2903 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2906 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2908 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2909 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2911 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2912 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2913 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2915 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2916 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2917 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2918 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2920 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2921 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2922 it is already running. Default is ON.
2924 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2925 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2926 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2927 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2930 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2931 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2932 or the value of the environment variable
2935 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2936 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2939 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2940 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2941 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2943 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2944 history expansion will be performed on
2945 command line input. The default is OFF.
2947 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2948 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2949 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2951 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2952 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2953 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2956 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2957 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2958 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2961 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2962 ``set width'' instead.
2964 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2965 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2966 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2967 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2969 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2972 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2975 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2978 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2981 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2983 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2984 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2985 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2989 * Support for Shared Libraries
2991 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2992 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2993 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2994 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2995 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2996 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2997 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2998 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3000 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3001 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3002 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3004 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3009 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3010 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3011 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3012 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3013 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3014 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3016 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3018 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3020 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3021 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3022 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3025 * C++ multiple inheritance
3027 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3030 * C++ exception handling
3032 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3033 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3034 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3037 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3038 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3039 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3041 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3042 current stack frame.
3045 * Minor command changes
3047 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3048 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3049 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3051 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3052 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3053 frames without printing.
3055 * New directory command
3057 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3058 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3059 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3060 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3061 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3063 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3065 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3068 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3069 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3070 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3071 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob