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