1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.0
8 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
13 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
16 * Multi-program debugging.
18 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
19 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
20 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
21 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
22 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
23 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
24 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
25 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
27 * New tracing features
29 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
31 ** Trace state variables
33 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
34 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
35 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
36 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
37 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
38 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
39 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
40 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
41 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
42 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
46 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
47 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
48 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
49 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
50 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
51 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
52 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
53 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
54 the regular trace command.
56 ** Disconnected tracing
58 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
59 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
60 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
61 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
62 connection is lost unexpectedly.
67 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
68 the arguments to be comma-separated.
71 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
72 which only declare a variable are not shown.
74 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
76 record save [<FILENAME>]
77 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
78 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
80 record restore <FILENAME>
81 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
82 earlier time, for replay debugging.
84 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
87 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
88 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
94 maint info program-spaces
95 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
97 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
98 show remote interrupt-sequence
99 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
100 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
101 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
102 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
103 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
105 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
106 show remote interrupt-on-connect
107 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
108 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
111 set remotebreak [on | off]
113 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
115 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
116 Create or modify a trace state variable.
119 List trace state variables and their values.
121 delete tvariable $NAME ...
122 Delete one or more trace state variables.
125 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
126 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
128 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
129 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
133 set follow-exec-mode new|same
134 show follow-exec-mode
135 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
136 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
137 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
139 set default-collect EXPR, ...
141 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
142 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
143 such as registers or a critical global variable.
145 set disconnected-tracing
146 show disconnected-tracing
147 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
148 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
154 Define a trace state variable.
157 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
160 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
163 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
167 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
169 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
171 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
172 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
173 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
174 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
175 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
177 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
178 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
179 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
180 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
181 for tracepoint actions.
183 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
184 in hex as well as in symbolic form."
186 * Process record and replay
188 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
189 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
190 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
193 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
194 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
195 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
198 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
199 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
202 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
203 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
204 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
205 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
206 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
207 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
208 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
209 the installation instructions for more information.
211 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
212 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
213 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
214 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
216 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
217 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
219 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
220 now complete on file names.
222 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
223 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
224 For instance, consider:
226 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
227 # struct example variable;
230 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
231 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
233 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
234 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
236 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
237 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
240 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
241 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
242 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
244 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
245 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
246 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
247 and simulator targets may also provide them.
252 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
255 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
256 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
257 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
260 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
261 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
264 Obtains additional operating system information
268 Read or write additional signal information.
270 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
272 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
273 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
274 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
276 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
279 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
280 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
282 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
283 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
284 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
286 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
287 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
289 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
291 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
293 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
294 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
296 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
297 list of section offsets.
299 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
300 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
301 have also been fixed.
303 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
304 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
305 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
307 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
310 template<typename T> class C { };
313 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
315 ptype C<char const *>
317 ptype C<const char *>
320 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
322 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
323 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
325 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
326 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
327 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
329 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
330 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
332 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
335 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
336 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
338 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
339 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
344 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
345 available is determined at configure time.
347 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
349 * Ada tasking support
351 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
355 Print the list of Ada tasks.
357 Print detailed information about task number N.
359 Print the task number of the current task.
361 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
363 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
364 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
366 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
368 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
369 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
370 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
371 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
372 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
373 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
376 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
377 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
380 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
381 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
382 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
383 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
386 * Multi-architecture debugging.
388 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
389 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
390 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
391 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
392 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
394 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
395 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
396 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
397 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
398 --enable-targets configure option.
400 * Non-stop mode debugging.
402 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
403 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
404 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
405 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
406 section in the user manual for more information.
408 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
409 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
410 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
411 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
412 extensions on linux targets.
414 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
416 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
417 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
418 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
419 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
420 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
421 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
422 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
423 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
424 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
426 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
428 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
430 maint set python print-stack
431 maint show python print-stack
432 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
435 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
440 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
444 Show operating system information about processes.
447 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
450 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
453 Detach from inferior number NUM.
456 Kill inferior number NUM.
461 show spu stop-on-load
462 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
464 set spu auto-flush-cache
465 show spu auto-flush-cache
466 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
467 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
469 set sh calling-convention
470 show sh calling-convention
471 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
475 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
477 set disassemble-next-line
478 show disassemble-next-line
479 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
482 set remote noack-packet
483 show remote noack-packet
484 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
485 under "New remote packets."
487 set remote query-attached-packet
488 show remote query-attached-packet
489 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
491 set remote read-siginfo-object
492 show remote read-siginfo-object
493 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
496 set remote write-siginfo-object
497 show remote write-siginfo-object
498 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
501 set remote reverse-continue
502 show remote reverse-continue
503 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
505 set remote reverse-step
506 show remote reverse-step
507 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
509 set displaced-stepping
510 show displaced-stepping
511 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
512 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
513 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
517 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
519 maint set internal-error
520 maint show internal-error
521 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
523 maint set internal-warning
524 maint show internal-warning
525 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
530 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
532 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
533 show multiple-symbols
534 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
535 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
536 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
538 set breakpoint always-inserted
539 show breakpoint always-inserted
540 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
541 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
542 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
544 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
545 show arm fallback-mode
546 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
548 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
549 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
550 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
551 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
553 set disable-randomization
554 show disable-randomization
555 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
556 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
557 multiple debugging sessions.
561 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
566 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
567 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
568 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
569 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
571 set target-wide-charset
572 show target-wide-charset
573 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
574 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
576 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
578 set tcp connect-timeout
579 show tcp connect-timeout
580 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
581 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
582 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
584 set libthread-db-search-path
585 show libthread-db-search-path
586 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
589 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
590 show schedule-multiple
591 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
596 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
597 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
598 affecting correctness.
600 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
601 show interactive-mode
602 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
603 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
604 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
605 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
606 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
611 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
612 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
613 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
617 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
618 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
619 alias for the `fork' command.
622 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
623 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
624 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
627 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
628 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
629 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
633 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
634 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
635 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
638 * New native configurations
640 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
642 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
646 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
647 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
648 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
651 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
652 (mingw32ce) debugging.
658 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
660 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
662 * New native configurations
664 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
665 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
669 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
670 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
672 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
674 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
675 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
676 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
677 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
679 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
680 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
682 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
685 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
686 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
687 and in inlined functions.
689 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
690 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
691 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
693 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
695 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
696 registers on PowerPC targets.
698 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
699 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
701 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
702 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
704 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
705 extended-remote mode.
707 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
708 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
709 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
710 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
712 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
713 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
714 target architectures.
716 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
717 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
718 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
719 stored in two consecutive float registers.
721 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
724 * Improved support for debugging Ada
725 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
727 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
728 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
729 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
730 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
732 - Improved command completion in Ada
735 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
740 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
741 show print frame-arguments
742 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
743 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
748 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
755 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
764 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
767 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
771 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
773 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
775 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
776 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
777 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
779 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
780 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
781 -Bsymbolic linker option.
783 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
784 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
787 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
788 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
790 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
791 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
793 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
795 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
796 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
797 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
799 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
800 automatically displayed as character or string data.
802 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
803 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
806 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
807 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
808 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
810 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
813 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
814 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
815 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
817 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
819 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
821 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
822 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
823 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
825 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
826 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
828 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
829 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
830 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
831 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
832 Windows and SymbianOS).
834 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
835 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
837 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
838 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
844 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
845 when debugging using remote targets.
847 set mem inaccessible-by-default
848 show mem inaccessible-by-default
849 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
850 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
851 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
852 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
853 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
855 set breakpoint auto-hw
856 show breakpoint auto-hw
857 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
858 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
859 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
860 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
861 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
862 including "next" and "finish".
865 catch exception unhandled
866 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
869 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
873 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
874 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
875 an alias to "set sysroot".
878 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
879 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
882 * New native configurations
884 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
889 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
890 not query the target for its built-in description.
894 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
895 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
896 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
901 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
902 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
905 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
910 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
911 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
913 qXfer:libraries:read:
914 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
915 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
916 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
917 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
921 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
930 i[34567]86-*-netware*
931 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
932 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
934 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
937 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
938 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
947 * Other removed features
954 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
961 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
966 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
967 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
972 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
973 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
975 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
977 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
978 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
979 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
980 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
984 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
985 in debugging information.
989 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
990 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
992 set mips stack-arg-size
993 set mips saved-gpreg-size
995 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
997 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1002 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1004 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1005 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1006 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1008 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1009 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1012 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1013 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1015 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1016 stub provides the required support.
1018 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1019 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1024 unset substitute-path
1025 show substitute-path
1026 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1027 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1028 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1029 between compilation and debugging.
1033 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1034 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1035 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1039 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1041 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1042 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1044 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1046 * New remote packets
1049 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1050 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1051 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1052 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1056 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1057 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1059 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1060 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1061 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1066 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1068 * Removed remote packets
1071 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1072 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1074 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1078 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1080 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1084 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1085 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1087 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1089 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1091 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1092 previously saved state.
1094 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1096 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1098 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1099 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1101 info forks List forks of the user program that
1102 are available to be debugged.
1104 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1105 forks of the user program that are
1106 available to be debugged.
1108 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1109 that are available to be debugged (and
1110 kill the forked process).
1112 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1113 that are available to be debugged (and
1114 allow the process to continue).
1118 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1120 * Improved Windows host support
1122 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1123 native console support, and remote communications using either
1124 network sockets or serial ports.
1126 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1128 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1129 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1130 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1131 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1132 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1133 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1137 The ARM rdi-share module.
1139 The Netware NLM debug server.
1141 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1143 * New native configurations
1145 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1146 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1150 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1152 * New command line options
1154 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1155 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1156 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1157 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1158 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1159 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1160 with the --command (-x) option.
1162 * Deprecated commands removed
1164 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1168 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1169 othernames set arm disassembler
1170 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1171 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1172 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1175 * New BSD user-level threads support
1177 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1178 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1181 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1182 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1183 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1185 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1186 are not yet supported.
1188 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1189 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1191 * REMOVED configurations and files
1193 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1194 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1195 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1197 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1199 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1200 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1203 * VAX floating point support
1205 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1207 * User-defined command support
1209 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1210 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1211 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1213 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1215 * New command line option
1217 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1220 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1222 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1223 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1224 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1225 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1226 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1228 * Internationalization
1230 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1231 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1232 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1236 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1237 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1238 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1240 * New native configurations
1242 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1246 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1247 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1249 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1251 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1252 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1253 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1256 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1257 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1258 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1268 powerpc bdm protocol
1270 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1271 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1273 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1275 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1276 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1277 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1278 permanently REMOVED.
1287 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1289 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1291 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1292 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1295 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1297 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1298 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1299 IRIX long double values).
1303 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1304 command. This problem has been fixed.
1306 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1308 * Fix for ``many threads''
1310 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1311 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1314 ptrace: No such process.
1315 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1317 This problem has been fixed.
1319 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1321 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1324 * New ``start'' command.
1326 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1328 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1330 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1331 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1332 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1334 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1335 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1336 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1337 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1338 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1339 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1340 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1341 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1342 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1344 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1346 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1347 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1348 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1349 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1350 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1352 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1353 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1354 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1356 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1358 * New native configurations
1360 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1361 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1362 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1363 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1364 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1365 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1366 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1368 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1370 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1371 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1372 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1373 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1374 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1375 work, was also included.
1377 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1378 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1388 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1389 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1391 * REMOVED configurations and files
1393 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1394 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1395 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1396 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1397 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1398 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1399 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1400 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1401 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1402 sonymips mips-sony-*
1403 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1405 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1407 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1409 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1410 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1411 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1412 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1415 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1417 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1418 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1419 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1420 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1421 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1422 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1425 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1427 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1429 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1430 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1431 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1433 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1435 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1436 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1438 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1440 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1441 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1442 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1444 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1446 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1447 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1449 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1451 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1452 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1453 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1455 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1457 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1458 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1459 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1461 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1463 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1465 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1466 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1468 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1470 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1471 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1472 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1473 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1475 * Revised SPARC target
1477 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1478 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1479 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1480 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1481 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1485 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1486 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1487 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1490 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1492 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1493 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1496 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1498 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1499 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1500 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1501 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1502 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1503 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1504 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1505 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1506 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1508 * New native configurations
1510 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1511 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1512 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1513 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1514 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1516 * New debugging protocols
1518 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1520 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1522 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1523 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1524 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1526 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1528 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1529 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1530 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1531 permanently REMOVED.
1533 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1534 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1535 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1536 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1537 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1538 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1539 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1540 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1541 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1542 sonymips mips-sony-*
1543 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1545 * REMOVED configurations and files
1547 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1548 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1549 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1550 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1551 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1552 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1553 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1554 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1555 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1556 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1557 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1558 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1559 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1560 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1561 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1562 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1563 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1565 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1569 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1570 integrated into GDB.
1572 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1574 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1575 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1576 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1579 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1580 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1581 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1585 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1586 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1587 remote protocol documentation for details.
1589 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1591 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1592 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1593 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1596 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1598 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1599 per-thread variables.
1601 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1603 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1604 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1606 * Separate debug info.
1608 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1609 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1610 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1611 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1612 and optional debug files.
1614 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1616 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1617 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1620 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1621 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1625 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1626 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1627 considered "useable".
1629 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1631 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1632 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1635 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1637 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1638 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1640 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1642 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1643 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1646 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1648 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1649 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1653 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1654 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1655 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1656 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1657 data, for more informative profiling results.
1659 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1661 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1662 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1663 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1665 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1668 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1669 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1670 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1671 in a subsequent -var-update.
1673 * New native configurations.
1675 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1677 * Multi-arched targets.
1679 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1680 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1682 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1684 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1685 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1686 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1687 permanently REMOVED.
1689 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1690 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1691 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1692 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1693 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1694 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1695 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1696 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1697 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1698 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1699 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1700 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1702 * REMOVED configurations and files
1705 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1706 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1707 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1708 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1709 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1710 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1712 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1713 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1714 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1715 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1716 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1717 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1719 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1721 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1722 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1723 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1724 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1725 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1727 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1729 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1731 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1732 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1733 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1734 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1735 shared libs like mad''.
1737 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1739 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1740 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1741 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1742 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1744 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1746 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1747 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1750 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1751 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1753 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1754 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1756 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1757 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1758 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1759 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1761 * Multi-arched targets.
1763 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1764 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1766 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1767 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1768 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1772 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1775 * New native configurations
1777 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1778 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1779 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1780 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1782 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1784 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1785 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1786 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1787 permanently REMOVED.
1789 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1790 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1791 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1792 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1793 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1794 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1795 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1796 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1797 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1798 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1800 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1801 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1803 * OBSOLETE languages
1805 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1807 * REMOVED configurations and files
1809 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1810 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1811 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1812 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1813 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1815 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1817 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1819 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1820 commands. The default is 1024.
1822 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1824 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1826 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1828 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1829 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1830 from a file into memory (restore).
1832 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1834 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1835 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1836 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1838 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1846 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1847 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1848 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1850 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1851 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1852 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1854 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1855 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1856 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1858 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1859 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1860 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1862 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1864 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1866 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1867 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1868 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1869 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1870 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1871 (notably embedded) targets.
1873 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1875 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1876 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1877 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1878 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1880 * New command line option
1882 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1884 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1886 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1887 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1888 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1889 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1890 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1891 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1892 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1893 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1894 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1895 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1897 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1899 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1900 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1902 * New native configurations
1904 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1905 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1906 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1907 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1911 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1913 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1915 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1916 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1917 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1918 permanently REMOVED.
1920 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1921 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1922 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1923 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1924 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1926 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1928 * REMOVED configurations and files
1930 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1932 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1933 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1934 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1935 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1936 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1937 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1938 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1939 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1940 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1941 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1942 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1944 * Changes to command line processing
1946 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1947 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1949 * Changes to key bindings
1951 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1953 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1955 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1957 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1960 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1962 Numerous documentation fixes.
1964 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1966 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1968 * New native configurations
1970 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1971 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1972 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1973 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1974 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1975 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1979 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1981 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1983 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1985 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1986 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1987 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1988 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1989 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1991 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1992 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1993 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1994 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1995 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1996 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1997 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1998 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2000 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2001 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2003 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2004 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2005 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2006 permanently REMOVED.
2008 * REMOVED configurations and files
2010 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2011 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2013 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2017 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2019 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2020 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2025 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2027 * The MI enabled by default.
2029 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2030 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2031 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2032 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2033 which is now deprecated.
2035 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2037 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2038 main features are supported:
2040 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2042 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2045 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2047 - a Pascal expression parser.
2049 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2051 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2053 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2055 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2056 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2058 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2060 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2062 * Changes in completion.
2064 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2065 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2066 users expect at the shell prompt.
2068 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2069 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2070 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2071 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2072 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2073 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2074 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2076 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2078 * New platform-independent commands:
2080 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2081 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2082 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2084 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2086 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2087 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2088 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2090 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2092 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2093 multi-threaded programs though.
2095 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2097 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2099 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2100 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2103 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2105 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2106 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2107 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2108 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2109 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2112 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2113 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2114 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2116 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2118 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2119 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2121 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2122 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2125 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2126 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2127 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2128 a given linear address.
2130 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2131 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2132 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2134 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2136 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2138 * Changes in documentation.
2140 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2141 Documentation License.
2143 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2146 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2148 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2151 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2152 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2153 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2155 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2157 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2158 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2159 contents of this file.
2163 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2165 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2167 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2169 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2170 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2171 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2172 greater level of detail.
2174 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2176 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2177 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2178 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2181 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2183 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2184 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2185 machines ``out of the box''.
2187 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2188 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2189 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2190 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2191 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2193 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2194 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2195 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2196 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2197 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2199 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2200 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2203 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2206 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2207 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2208 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2209 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2211 * New native configurations
2213 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2214 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2218 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2219 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2220 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2221 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2223 * OBSOLETE configurations
2225 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2226 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2228 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2231 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2232 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2233 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2234 be permanently REMOVED.
2236 * Gould support removed
2238 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2240 * New features for SVR4
2242 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2243 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2244 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2246 * Many C++ enhancements
2248 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2249 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2251 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2253 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2254 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2255 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2256 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2258 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2259 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2261 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2263 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2264 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2265 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2267 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2268 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2270 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2272 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2273 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2274 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2276 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2278 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2279 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2280 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2282 * ``apropos'' command added.
2284 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2285 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2286 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2290 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2291 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2292 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2293 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2294 enabled by configuring with:
2296 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2298 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2300 * New native configurations
2302 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2303 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2304 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2308 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2309 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2310 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2312 * OBSOLETE configurations
2314 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2316 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2317 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2318 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2319 be permanently REMOVED.
2323 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2324 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2325 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2326 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2327 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2328 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2329 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2334 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2336 * set extension-language
2338 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2339 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2340 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2341 set extension-language .c c++
2342 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2343 and their associated languages.
2345 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2347 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2348 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2349 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2353 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2354 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2356 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2357 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2359 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2360 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2361 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2362 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2363 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2364 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2365 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2366 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2368 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2369 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2370 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2371 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2375 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2376 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2377 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2378 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2379 for xdb and dbx commands.
2383 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2384 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2385 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2387 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2388 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2389 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2391 * Debugging across forks
2393 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2398 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2399 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2400 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2402 * GDB remote protocol additions
2404 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2405 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2406 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2407 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2409 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2410 full 64-bit address. The command
2412 set remoteaddresssize 32
2414 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2415 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2418 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2419 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2421 maint packet heythere
2423 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2424 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2427 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2428 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2429 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2431 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2433 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2434 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2435 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2437 * mask-address variable for Mips
2439 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2440 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2441 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2443 * Higher serial baud rates
2445 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2446 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2447 to achieve all of these rates.)
2451 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2452 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2455 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2457 * New native configurations
2459 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2460 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2461 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2462 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2463 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2464 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2465 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2469 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2470 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2471 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2472 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2473 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2474 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2475 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2476 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2477 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2478 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2479 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2481 * New debugging protocols
2483 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2484 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2485 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2486 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2487 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2488 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2492 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2493 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2498 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2499 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2501 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2503 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2504 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2505 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2507 * Live range splitting
2509 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2510 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2511 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2515 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2516 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2520 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2521 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2522 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2527 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2532 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2533 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2534 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2535 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2536 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2537 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2541 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2542 the symbol at the specified address.
2546 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2547 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2548 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2549 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2550 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2554 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2555 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2556 of most MIPS variants.
2560 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2561 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2562 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2566 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2567 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2568 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2569 the possible architectures.
2571 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2573 * New native configurations
2575 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2576 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2577 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2578 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2579 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2580 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2584 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2585 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2586 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2587 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2588 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2590 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2594 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2595 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2596 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2597 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2598 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2602 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2604 * Windows 95/NT native
2606 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2607 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2608 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2609 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2610 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2612 * dont-repeat command
2614 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2615 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2616 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2617 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2619 * Send break instead of ^C
2621 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2622 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2623 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2625 * Remote protocol timeout
2627 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2628 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2629 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2631 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2633 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2634 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2635 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2636 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2637 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2639 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2640 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2641 automatically on hpux10.
2643 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2645 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2647 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2649 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2650 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2651 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2652 every character. The default value is 1050.
2654 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2656 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2657 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2658 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2659 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2660 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2661 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2663 * Speedups for remote debugging
2665 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2666 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2667 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2669 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2671 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2672 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2674 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2676 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2678 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2679 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2681 * Remote targets use caching
2683 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2684 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2685 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2686 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2687 off' turns the the data cache off.
2689 * Remote targets may have threads
2691 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2692 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2693 gdb/remote.c for details.
2697 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2698 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2699 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2700 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2701 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2702 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2703 sequence is something like
2705 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2707 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2711 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2712 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2713 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2714 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2715 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2716 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2717 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2718 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2722 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2723 but does simplify configuration and building.
2727 GDB now supports hpux10.
2729 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2731 * New native configurations
2733 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2734 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2735 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2736 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2740 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2741 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2742 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2743 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2746 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2748 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2749 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2750 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2751 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2752 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2754 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2756 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2757 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2760 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2762 To execute the command use:
2765 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2766 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2767 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2769 * New `if' and `while' commands
2771 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2772 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2773 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2774 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2775 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2776 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2777 if the expression is zero.
2779 * Fortran source language mode
2781 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2782 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2783 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2784 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2787 * Better HPUX support
2789 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2790 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2791 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2792 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2793 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2799 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2800 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2806 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2807 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2810 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2811 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2813 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2815 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2816 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2817 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2818 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2819 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2820 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2822 * New DOS host serial code
2824 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2825 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2828 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2830 * New "complete" command
2832 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2833 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2835 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2837 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2838 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2840 * Breakpoint hit counts
2842 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2843 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2844 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2845 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2846 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2849 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2851 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2852 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2853 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2855 * Shared library breakpoints
2857 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2858 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2860 * Hardware watchpoints
2862 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2863 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2865 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2869 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2870 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2872 * Improved Irix 5 support
2874 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2876 * Improved HPPA support
2878 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2880 * New native configurations
2882 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2883 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2884 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2885 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2889 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2890 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2893 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2895 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2896 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2900 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2901 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2903 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2905 * Irix 5 is now supported
2909 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2910 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2911 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2912 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2913 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2916 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2918 * User visible changes:
2922 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2923 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2924 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2925 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2926 debugging info for the mips target).
2928 * DEC Alpha native support
2930 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2931 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2932 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2933 Alpha-specific notes.
2935 * Preliminary thread implementation
2937 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2939 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2941 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2942 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2945 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2947 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2948 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2949 call methods, ...etc.
2951 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2953 * User visible changes:
2955 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2956 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2957 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2958 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2960 Filename completion now works.
2962 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2963 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2964 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2966 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2967 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2968 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2969 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2970 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2974 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2975 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2978 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2982 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2983 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2984 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2988 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2989 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2990 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2991 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2992 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2996 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2997 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2998 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3000 * New targets supported
3002 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3003 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3004 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3005 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3006 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3008 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3009 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3010 GO32 memory extender.
3012 * New remote protocols
3014 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3016 * New source languages supported
3018 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3019 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3020 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3023 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3025 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3027 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3028 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3029 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3030 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3031 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3032 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3034 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3036 * Faster and better demangling
3038 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3039 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3040 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3041 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3042 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3043 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3046 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3047 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3048 compiler does not actually implement.
3050 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3052 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3053 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3054 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3055 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3056 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3057 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3060 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3061 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3063 * Improved configure script
3065 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3066 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3067 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3068 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3070 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3071 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3072 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3073 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3074 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3075 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3077 * Documentation improvements
3079 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3080 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3081 before submitting changes.
3083 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3084 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3085 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3086 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3087 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3089 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3090 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3091 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3092 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3093 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3094 around this problem.
3098 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3099 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3100 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3103 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3104 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3106 * New native hosts supported
3108 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3109 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3111 * New targets supported
3113 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3115 * New file formats supported
3117 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3118 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3122 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3124 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3125 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3127 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3128 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3129 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3131 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3132 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3134 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3135 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3136 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3139 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3140 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3141 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3142 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3143 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3145 * Internal improvements
3147 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3148 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3150 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3151 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3152 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3153 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3154 shared code that handles any of them.
3156 * New command line options
3158 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3162 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3163 General Public License.
3165 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3167 * Host/native/target split
3169 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3170 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3171 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3172 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3173 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3175 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3176 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3177 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3178 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3179 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3180 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3181 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3183 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3184 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3185 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3187 * New hosts supported
3189 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3190 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3191 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3193 * New targets supported
3195 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3196 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3198 * New native hosts supported
3200 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3201 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3202 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3204 * New file formats supported
3206 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3207 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3208 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3212 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3213 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3214 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3216 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3218 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3219 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3220 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3221 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3225 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3226 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3227 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3229 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3233 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3234 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3237 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3238 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3240 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3241 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3242 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3243 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3244 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3245 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3247 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3248 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3249 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3250 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3254 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3255 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3256 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3257 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3258 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3260 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3261 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3262 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3263 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3267 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3268 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3269 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3270 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3271 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3272 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3273 each instruction being stepped through.
3275 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3276 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3278 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3279 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3280 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3281 processor with a serial port.
3285 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3286 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3287 supported, and what files each one uses.
3291 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3292 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3293 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3294 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3296 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3297 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3298 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3299 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3303 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3304 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3305 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3306 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3307 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3308 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3310 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3313 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3315 * Better support for C++ function names
3317 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3318 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3319 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3320 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3321 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3323 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3324 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3325 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3326 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3327 for the list of formats.
3329 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3331 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3332 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3333 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3334 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3335 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3336 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3339 * New 'maintenance' command
3341 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3342 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3343 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3345 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3346 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3347 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3348 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3349 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3350 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3352 The following commands are new:
3354 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3355 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3356 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3358 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3360 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3361 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3362 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3363 read after argv processing.
3365 * New hosts supported
3367 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3369 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3371 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3372 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3373 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3374 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3375 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3378 * New targets supported
3380 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3382 * More smarts about finding #include files
3384 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3385 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3386 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3387 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3388 the one that contains your sources.
3390 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3391 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3392 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3394 * Interesting infernals change
3396 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3397 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3398 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3399 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3401 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3403 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3404 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3405 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3407 See the ChangeLog for details.
3409 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3411 * New machines supported (host and target)
3413 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3415 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3417 * New malloc package
3419 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3420 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3421 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3422 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3423 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3424 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3428 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3429 'help info proc' for details.
3431 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3433 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3434 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3437 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3439 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3440 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3441 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3442 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3443 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3444 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3446 * Cross byte order fixes
3448 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3449 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3451 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3453 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3454 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3455 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3456 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3457 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3458 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3459 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3460 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3461 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3462 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3464 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3465 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3466 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3467 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3469 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3470 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3471 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3474 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3476 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3477 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3478 shared across multiple host platforms.
3480 * longjmp() handling
3482 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3483 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3484 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3485 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3489 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3490 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3495 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3496 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3497 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3499 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3501 * New machines supported (host and target)
3503 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3505 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3506 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3508 * New machines supported (target)
3510 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3514 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3515 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3516 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3518 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3519 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3520 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3521 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3522 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3525 * New features for SVR4
3527 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3528 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3529 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3531 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3532 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3533 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3535 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3536 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3538 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3540 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3541 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3542 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3543 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3544 same code linked statically.
3548 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3549 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3550 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3551 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3552 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3553 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3557 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3558 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3559 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3562 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3564 * New machines supported (host and target)
3566 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3567 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3568 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3570 * Almost SCO Unix support
3572 We had hoped to support:
3573 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3574 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3575 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3576 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3578 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3580 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3581 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3582 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3583 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3588 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3589 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3590 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3594 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3595 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3596 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3598 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3600 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3601 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3602 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3604 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3605 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3606 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3607 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3610 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3611 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3612 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3613 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3616 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3617 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3620 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3621 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3622 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3625 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3627 * Improved configuration
3629 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3630 Porting BFD is simpler.
3634 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3635 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3636 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3637 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3641 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3643 * New host supported (not target)
3645 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3648 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3650 * Multiple source language support
3652 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3653 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3654 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3655 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3656 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3657 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3661 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3662 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3663 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3664 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3666 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3667 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3668 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3670 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3671 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3675 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3676 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3677 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3678 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3681 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3683 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3684 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3685 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3686 examining core files.
3690 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3693 * New machines supported (host and target)
3695 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3696 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3697 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3699 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3701 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3703 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3705 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3706 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3707 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3709 * New remote interfaces
3715 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3719 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3721 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3722 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3723 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3724 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3725 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3726 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3727 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3728 stub on the target system.
3730 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3732 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3733 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3734 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3736 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3737 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3740 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3742 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3743 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3745 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3746 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3747 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3749 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3750 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3751 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3752 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3754 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3755 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3756 it is already running. Default is ON.
3758 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3759 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3760 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3761 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3764 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3765 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3766 or the value of the environment variable
3769 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3770 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3773 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3774 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3775 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3777 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3778 history expansion will be performed on
3779 command line input. The default is OFF.
3781 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3782 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3783 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3785 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3786 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3787 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3790 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3791 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3792 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3795 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3796 ``set width'' instead.
3798 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3799 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3800 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3801 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3803 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3806 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3809 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3812 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3815 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3817 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3818 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3819 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3823 * Support for Shared Libraries
3825 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3826 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3827 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3828 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3829 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3830 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3831 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3832 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3834 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3835 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3836 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3838 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3843 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3844 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3845 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3846 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3847 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3848 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3850 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3852 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3854 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3855 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3856 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3859 * C++ multiple inheritance
3861 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3864 * C++ exception handling
3866 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3867 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3868 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3871 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3872 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3873 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3875 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3876 current stack frame.
3879 * Minor command changes
3881 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3882 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3883 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3885 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3886 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3887 frames without printing.
3889 * New directory command
3891 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3892 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3893 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3894 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3895 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3897 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3899 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3902 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3903 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3904 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3905 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob