1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.2
10 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
12 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
13 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
23 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
24 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
25 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
27 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
29 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
30 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
31 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
32 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
34 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
35 mentioned flavors of operators.
37 ** static const class members
39 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
40 class definition has been fixed.
42 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
44 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
45 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
46 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
47 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
48 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
49 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
53 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
54 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
55 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
56 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
57 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
58 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
59 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
60 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
61 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
62 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
63 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
64 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
65 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
66 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
67 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
68 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
69 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
70 the "New remote packets" section below.
76 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
80 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
81 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
82 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
83 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
84 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
85 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
89 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
93 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
96 qXfer:statictrace:read
98 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
99 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
100 to gdb's qSupported query.
102 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
103 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
106 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
108 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
109 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
110 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
111 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
113 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
114 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
115 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
116 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
117 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
118 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
119 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
121 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
122 for static tracepoints support.
124 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
126 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
127 it understands register description.
129 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
131 * X86 general purpose registers
133 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
134 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
135 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
136 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
137 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
139 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
140 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
141 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
142 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
143 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
144 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
146 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
147 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
148 in the specified file.
150 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
151 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
152 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
153 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
154 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
155 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
156 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
157 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
158 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
159 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
163 eval template, expressions...
164 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
165 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
167 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
168 show target-file-system-kind
169 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
172 save breakpoints <filename>
173 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
174 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
175 definitions, use the `source' command.
177 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
180 info static-tracepoint-markers
181 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
183 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
184 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
185 function, line, address, or marker ID.
189 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
190 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
191 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
192 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
193 GDB using Python' in the manual.
195 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
196 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
197 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
198 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
200 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
201 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
203 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
205 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
207 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
209 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
210 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
211 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
213 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
214 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
215 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
220 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
222 * D language support.
223 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
226 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
232 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
233 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
234 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
235 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
236 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
240 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
241 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
246 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
247 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
251 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
256 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
259 * Multi-program debugging.
261 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
262 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
263 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
264 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
265 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
266 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
267 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
268 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
270 * New tracing features
272 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
274 ** Trace state variables
276 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
277 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
278 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
279 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
280 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
281 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
282 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
283 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
284 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
285 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
289 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
290 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
291 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
292 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
293 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
294 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
295 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
296 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
297 the regular trace command.
299 ** Disconnected tracing
301 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
302 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
303 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
304 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
305 connection is lost unexpectedly.
309 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
310 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
311 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
312 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
313 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
314 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
317 ** Circular trace buffer
319 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
320 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
321 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
322 not be available for all target agents.
327 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
328 the arguments to be comma-separated.
331 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
332 which only declare a variable are not shown.
335 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
336 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
339 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
340 "set script-extension" (see below).
342 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
344 record save [<FILENAME>]
345 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
346 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
348 record restore <FILENAME>
349 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
350 earlier time, for replay debugging.
352 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
355 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
356 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
362 maint info program-spaces
363 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
365 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
366 show remote interrupt-sequence
367 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
368 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
369 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
370 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
371 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
373 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
374 show remote interrupt-on-connect
375 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
376 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
379 set remotebreak [on | off]
381 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
383 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
384 Create or modify a trace state variable.
387 List trace state variables and their values.
389 delete tvariable $NAME ...
390 Delete one or more trace state variables.
393 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
394 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
396 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
397 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
399 * New expression syntax
401 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
402 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
406 set follow-exec-mode new|same
407 show follow-exec-mode
408 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
409 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
410 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
412 set default-collect EXPR, ...
414 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
415 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
416 such as registers or a critical global variable.
418 set disconnected-tracing
419 show disconnected-tracing
420 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
421 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
424 set circular-trace-buffer
425 show circular-trace-buffer
426 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
427 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
428 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
429 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
431 set script-extension off|soft|strict
432 show script-extension
433 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
434 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
435 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
436 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
438 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
440 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
441 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
442 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
443 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
444 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
445 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
446 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
449 * Python API Improvements
451 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
452 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
453 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
455 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
456 `is_base_class' attribute.
458 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
460 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
461 evaluate an expression.
466 Define a trace state variable.
469 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
472 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
475 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
478 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
482 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
484 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
485 much more reliable. In particular:
486 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
487 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
488 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
489 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
490 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
491 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
492 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
493 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
494 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
495 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
496 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
497 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
498 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
499 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
500 non-threaded programs.
502 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
503 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
504 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
507 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
509 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
510 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
511 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
512 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
513 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
515 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
516 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
517 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
518 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
519 for tracepoint actions.
521 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
522 in hex as well as in symbolic form.
524 * Process record and replay
526 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
527 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
528 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
531 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
532 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
533 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
536 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
537 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
540 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
541 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
542 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
543 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
544 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
545 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
546 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
547 the installation instructions for more information.
549 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
550 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
551 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
552 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
554 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
555 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
557 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
558 now complete on file names.
560 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
561 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
562 For instance, consider:
564 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
565 # struct example variable;
568 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
569 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
571 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
572 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
574 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
575 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
578 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
579 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
580 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
582 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
583 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
584 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
585 and simulator targets may also provide them.
590 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
593 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
594 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
595 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
598 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
599 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
602 Obtains additional operating system information
606 Read or write additional signal information.
608 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
610 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
611 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
612 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
614 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
617 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
618 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
620 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
621 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
622 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
624 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
625 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
627 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
629 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
631 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
632 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
634 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
635 list of section offsets.
637 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
638 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
639 have also been fixed.
641 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
642 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
643 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
645 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
648 template<typename T> class C { };
651 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
653 ptype C<char const *>
655 ptype C<const char *>
658 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
660 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
661 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
663 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
664 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
665 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
667 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
668 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
670 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
673 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
674 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
676 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
677 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
682 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
683 available is determined at configure time.
685 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
687 * Ada tasking support
689 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
693 Print the list of Ada tasks.
695 Print detailed information about task number N.
697 Print the task number of the current task.
699 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
701 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
702 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
704 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
706 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
707 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
708 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
709 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
710 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
711 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
714 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
715 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
718 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
719 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
720 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
721 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
724 * Multi-architecture debugging.
726 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
727 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
728 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
729 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
730 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
732 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
733 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
734 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
735 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
736 --enable-targets configure option.
738 * Non-stop mode debugging.
740 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
741 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
742 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
743 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
744 section in the user manual for more information.
746 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
747 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
748 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
749 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
750 extensions on linux targets.
752 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
754 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
755 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
756 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
757 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
758 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
759 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
760 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
761 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
762 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
764 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
766 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
768 maint set python print-stack
769 maint show python print-stack
770 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
773 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
778 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
782 Show operating system information about processes.
785 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
788 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
791 Detach from inferior number NUM.
794 Kill inferior number NUM.
799 show spu stop-on-load
800 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
802 set spu auto-flush-cache
803 show spu auto-flush-cache
804 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
805 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
807 set sh calling-convention
808 show sh calling-convention
809 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
813 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
815 set disassemble-next-line
816 show disassemble-next-line
817 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
820 set remote noack-packet
821 show remote noack-packet
822 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
823 under "New remote packets."
825 set remote query-attached-packet
826 show remote query-attached-packet
827 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
829 set remote read-siginfo-object
830 show remote read-siginfo-object
831 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
834 set remote write-siginfo-object
835 show remote write-siginfo-object
836 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
839 set remote reverse-continue
840 show remote reverse-continue
841 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
843 set remote reverse-step
844 show remote reverse-step
845 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
847 set displaced-stepping
848 show displaced-stepping
849 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
850 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
851 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
855 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
857 maint set internal-error
858 maint show internal-error
859 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
861 maint set internal-warning
862 maint show internal-warning
863 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
868 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
870 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
871 show multiple-symbols
872 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
873 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
874 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
876 set breakpoint always-inserted
877 show breakpoint always-inserted
878 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
879 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
880 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
882 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
883 show arm fallback-mode
884 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
886 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
887 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
888 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
889 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
891 set disable-randomization
892 show disable-randomization
893 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
894 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
895 multiple debugging sessions.
899 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
904 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
905 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
906 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
907 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
909 set target-wide-charset
910 show target-wide-charset
911 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
912 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
914 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
916 set tcp connect-timeout
917 show tcp connect-timeout
918 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
919 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
920 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
922 set libthread-db-search-path
923 show libthread-db-search-path
924 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
927 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
928 show schedule-multiple
929 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
934 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
935 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
936 affecting correctness.
938 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
939 show interactive-mode
940 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
941 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
942 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
943 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
944 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
949 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
950 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
951 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
955 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
956 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
957 alias for the `fork' command.
960 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
961 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
962 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
965 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
966 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
967 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
971 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
972 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
973 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
976 * New native configurations
978 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
980 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
984 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
985 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
986 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
989 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
990 (mingw32ce) debugging.
996 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
998 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1000 * New native configurations
1002 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1003 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1007 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1008 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1010 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1012 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1013 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1014 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1015 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1017 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1018 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1020 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1023 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1024 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1025 and in inlined functions.
1027 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1028 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1029 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1031 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1033 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1034 registers on PowerPC targets.
1036 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1037 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1039 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1040 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1042 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1043 extended-remote mode.
1045 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1046 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1047 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1048 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1050 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1051 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1052 target architectures.
1054 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1055 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1056 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1057 stored in two consecutive float registers.
1059 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1062 * Improved support for debugging Ada
1063 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1065 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1066 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1067 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1068 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1070 - Improved command completion in Ada
1073 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1078 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1079 show print frame-arguments
1080 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1081 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1086 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1093 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1095 * New remote packets
1102 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1105 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1109 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1111 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
1113 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1114 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1115 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1117 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1118 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1119 -Bsymbolic linker option.
1121 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1122 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1125 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1126 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1128 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1129 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
1131 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1133 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1134 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1135 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1137 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1138 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1140 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1141 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1144 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1145 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1146 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1148 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1151 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1152 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1153 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1155 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1157 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1159 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1160 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1161 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1163 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1164 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1166 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1167 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1168 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1169 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1170 Windows and SymbianOS).
1172 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1173 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1175 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1176 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1182 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1183 when debugging using remote targets.
1185 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1186 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1187 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1188 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1189 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1190 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1191 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1193 set breakpoint auto-hw
1194 show breakpoint auto-hw
1195 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1196 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1197 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1198 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1199 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1200 including "next" and "finish".
1203 catch exception unhandled
1204 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1207 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1211 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1212 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1213 an alias to "set sysroot".
1216 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1217 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1220 * New native configurations
1222 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1225 unset tdesc filename
1227 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1228 not query the target for its built-in description.
1232 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1233 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1234 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1236 * New remote packets
1239 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1240 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1242 qXfer:features:read:
1243 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1248 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1249 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1251 qXfer:libraries:read:
1252 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1253 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1254 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1255 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1259 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1267 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1268 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1269 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1270 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1272 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1275 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1276 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1285 * Other removed features
1292 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1299 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1304 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1305 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1310 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1311 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1313 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1315 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1316 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1317 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1318 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1320 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1322 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1323 in debugging information.
1327 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1328 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1330 set mips stack-arg-size
1331 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1333 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1335 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1340 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1342 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1343 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1344 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1346 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1347 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1350 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1351 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1353 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1354 stub provides the required support.
1356 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1357 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1362 unset substitute-path
1363 show substitute-path
1364 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1365 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1366 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1367 between compilation and debugging.
1371 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1372 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1373 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1377 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1379 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1380 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1382 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1384 * New remote packets
1387 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1388 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1389 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1390 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1394 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1395 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1397 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1398 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1399 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1404 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1406 * Removed remote packets
1409 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1410 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1412 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1416 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1418 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1422 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1423 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1425 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1427 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1429 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1430 previously saved state.
1432 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1434 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1436 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1437 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1439 info forks List forks of the user program that
1440 are available to be debugged.
1442 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1443 forks of the user program that are
1444 available to be debugged.
1446 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1447 that are available to be debugged (and
1448 kill the forked process).
1450 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1451 that are available to be debugged (and
1452 allow the process to continue).
1456 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1458 * Improved Windows host support
1460 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1461 native console support, and remote communications using either
1462 network sockets or serial ports.
1464 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1466 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1467 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1468 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1469 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1470 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1471 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1475 The ARM rdi-share module.
1477 The Netware NLM debug server.
1479 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1481 * New native configurations
1483 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1484 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1488 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1490 * New command line options
1492 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1493 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1494 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1495 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1496 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1497 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1498 with the --command (-x) option.
1500 * Deprecated commands removed
1502 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1506 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1507 othernames set arm disassembler
1508 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1509 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1510 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1513 * New BSD user-level threads support
1515 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1516 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1519 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1520 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1521 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1523 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1524 are not yet supported.
1526 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1527 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1529 * REMOVED configurations and files
1531 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1532 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1533 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1535 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1537 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1538 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1541 * VAX floating point support
1543 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1545 * User-defined command support
1547 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1548 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1549 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1551 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1553 * New command line option
1555 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1558 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1560 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1561 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1562 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1563 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1564 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1566 * Internationalization
1568 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1569 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1570 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1574 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1575 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1576 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1578 * New native configurations
1580 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1584 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1585 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1587 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1589 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1590 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1591 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1594 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1595 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1596 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1606 powerpc bdm protocol
1608 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1609 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1611 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1613 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1614 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1615 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1616 permanently REMOVED.
1625 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1627 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1629 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1630 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1633 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1635 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1636 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1637 IRIX long double values).
1641 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1642 command. This problem has been fixed.
1644 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1646 * Fix for ``many threads''
1648 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1649 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1652 ptrace: No such process.
1653 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1655 This problem has been fixed.
1657 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1659 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1662 * New ``start'' command.
1664 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1666 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1668 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1669 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1670 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1672 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1673 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1674 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1675 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1676 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1677 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1678 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1679 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1680 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1682 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1684 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1685 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1686 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1687 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1688 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1690 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1691 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1692 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1694 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1696 * New native configurations
1698 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1699 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1700 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1701 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1702 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1703 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1704 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1706 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1708 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1709 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1710 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1711 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1712 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1713 work, was also included.
1715 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1716 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1726 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1727 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1729 * REMOVED configurations and files
1731 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1732 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1733 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1734 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1735 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1736 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1737 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1738 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1739 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1740 sonymips mips-sony-*
1741 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1743 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1745 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1747 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1748 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1749 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1750 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1753 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1755 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1756 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1757 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1758 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1759 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1760 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1763 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1765 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1767 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1768 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1769 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1771 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1773 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1774 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1776 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1778 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1779 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1780 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1782 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1784 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1785 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1787 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1789 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1790 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1791 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1793 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1795 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1796 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1797 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1799 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1801 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1803 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1804 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1806 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1808 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1809 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1810 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1811 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1813 * Revised SPARC target
1815 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1816 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1817 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1818 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1819 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1823 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1824 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1825 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1828 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1830 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1831 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1834 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1836 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1837 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1838 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1839 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1840 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1841 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1842 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1843 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1844 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1846 * New native configurations
1848 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1849 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1850 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1851 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1852 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1854 * New debugging protocols
1856 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1858 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1860 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1861 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1862 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1864 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1866 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1867 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1868 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1869 permanently REMOVED.
1871 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1872 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1873 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1874 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1875 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1876 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1877 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1878 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1879 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1880 sonymips mips-sony-*
1881 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1883 * REMOVED configurations and files
1885 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1886 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1887 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1888 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1889 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1890 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1891 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1892 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1893 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1894 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1895 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1896 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1897 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1898 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1899 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1900 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1901 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1903 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1907 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1908 integrated into GDB.
1910 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1912 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1913 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1914 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1917 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1918 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1919 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1923 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1924 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1925 remote protocol documentation for details.
1927 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1929 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1930 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1931 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1934 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1936 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1937 per-thread variables.
1939 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1941 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1942 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1944 * Separate debug info.
1946 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1947 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1948 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1949 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1950 and optional debug files.
1952 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1954 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1955 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1958 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1959 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1963 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1964 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1965 considered "useable".
1967 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1969 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1970 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1973 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1975 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1976 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1978 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1980 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1981 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1984 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1986 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1987 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1991 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1992 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1993 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1994 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1995 data, for more informative profiling results.
1997 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1999 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2000 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2001 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2003 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2006 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2007 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2008 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2009 in a subsequent -var-update.
2011 * New native configurations.
2013 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2015 * Multi-arched targets.
2017 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2018 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2020 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2022 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2023 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2024 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2025 permanently REMOVED.
2027 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2028 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2029 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2030 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2031 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2032 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2033 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2034 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2035 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2036 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2037 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2038 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2040 * REMOVED configurations and files
2043 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2044 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2045 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2046 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2047 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2048 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2050 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2051 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2052 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2053 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2054 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2055 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2057 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
2059 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2060 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2061 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2062 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2063 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2065 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2067 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2069 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2070 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2071 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2072 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2073 shared libs like mad''.
2075 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2077 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2078 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2079 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2080 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2082 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2084 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2085 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2088 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2089 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2091 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2092 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2094 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2095 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2096 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2097 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2099 * Multi-arched targets.
2101 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2102 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2104 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2105 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2106 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2110 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2113 * New native configurations
2115 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2116 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2117 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2118 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2120 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2122 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2123 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2124 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2125 permanently REMOVED.
2127 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2128 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2129 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2130 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2131 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2132 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2133 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2134 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2135 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2136 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2138 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2139 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2141 * OBSOLETE languages
2143 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2145 * REMOVED configurations and files
2147 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2148 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2149 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2150 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2151 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2153 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2155 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2157 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2158 commands. The default is 1024.
2160 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2162 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2164 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2166 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2167 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2168 from a file into memory (restore).
2170 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2172 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2173 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2174 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2176 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2184 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2185 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2186 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2188 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2189 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2190 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2192 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2193 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2194 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2196 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2197 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2198 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2200 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2202 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2204 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2205 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2206 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2207 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2208 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2209 (notably embedded) targets.
2211 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2213 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2214 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2215 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2216 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2218 * New command line option
2220 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2222 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2224 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2225 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2226 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2227 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2228 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2229 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2230 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2231 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2232 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2233 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2235 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2237 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2238 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2240 * New native configurations
2242 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2243 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2244 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2245 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2249 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2251 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2253 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2254 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2255 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2256 permanently REMOVED.
2258 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2259 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2260 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2261 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2262 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2264 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2266 * REMOVED configurations and files
2268 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2270 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2271 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2272 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2273 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2274 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2275 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2276 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2277 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2278 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2279 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2280 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2282 * Changes to command line processing
2284 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2285 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2287 * Changes to key bindings
2289 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2291 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2293 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2295 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2298 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2300 Numerous documentation fixes.
2302 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2304 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2306 * New native configurations
2308 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2309 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2310 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2311 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2312 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2313 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2317 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2319 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2321 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2323 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2324 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2325 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2326 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2327 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2329 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2330 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2331 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2332 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2333 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2334 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2335 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2336 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2338 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2339 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2341 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2342 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2343 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2344 permanently REMOVED.
2346 * REMOVED configurations and files
2348 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2349 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2351 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2355 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2357 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2358 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2363 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2365 * The MI enabled by default.
2367 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2368 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2369 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2370 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2371 which is now deprecated.
2373 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2375 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2376 main features are supported:
2378 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2380 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2383 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2385 - a Pascal expression parser.
2387 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2389 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2391 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2393 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2394 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2396 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2398 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2400 * Changes in completion.
2402 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2403 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2404 users expect at the shell prompt.
2406 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2407 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2408 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2409 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2410 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2411 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2412 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2414 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2416 * New platform-independent commands:
2418 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2419 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2420 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2422 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2424 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2425 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2426 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2428 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2430 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2431 multi-threaded programs though.
2433 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2435 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2437 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2438 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2441 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2443 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2444 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2445 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2446 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2447 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2450 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2451 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2452 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2454 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2456 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2457 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2459 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2460 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2463 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2464 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2465 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2466 a given linear address.
2468 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2469 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2470 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2472 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2474 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2476 * Changes in documentation.
2478 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2479 Documentation License.
2481 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2484 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2486 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2489 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2490 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2491 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2493 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2495 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2496 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2497 contents of this file.
2501 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2503 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2505 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2507 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2508 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2509 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2510 greater level of detail.
2512 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2514 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2515 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2516 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2519 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2521 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2522 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2523 machines ``out of the box''.
2525 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2526 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2527 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2528 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2529 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2531 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2532 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2533 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2534 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2535 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2537 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2538 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2541 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2544 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2545 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2546 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2547 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2549 * New native configurations
2551 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2552 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2556 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2557 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2558 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2559 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2561 * OBSOLETE configurations
2563 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2564 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2566 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2569 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2570 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2571 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2572 be permanently REMOVED.
2574 * Gould support removed
2576 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2578 * New features for SVR4
2580 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2581 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2582 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2584 * Many C++ enhancements
2586 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2587 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2589 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2591 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2592 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2593 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2594 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2596 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2597 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2599 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2601 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2602 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2603 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2605 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2606 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2608 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2610 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2611 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2612 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2614 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2616 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2617 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2618 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2620 * ``apropos'' command added.
2622 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2623 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2624 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2628 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2629 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2630 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2631 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2632 enabled by configuring with:
2634 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2636 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2638 * New native configurations
2640 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2641 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2642 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2646 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2647 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2648 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2650 * OBSOLETE configurations
2652 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2654 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2655 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2656 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2657 be permanently REMOVED.
2661 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2662 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2663 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2664 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2665 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2666 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2667 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2672 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2674 * set extension-language
2676 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2677 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2678 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2679 set extension-language .c c++
2680 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2681 and their associated languages.
2683 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2685 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2686 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2687 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2691 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2692 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2694 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2695 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2697 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2698 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2699 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2700 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2701 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2702 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2703 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2704 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2706 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2707 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2708 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2709 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2713 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2714 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2715 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2716 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2717 for xdb and dbx commands.
2721 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2722 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2723 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2725 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2726 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2727 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2729 * Debugging across forks
2731 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2736 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2737 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2738 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2740 * GDB remote protocol additions
2742 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2743 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2744 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2745 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2747 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2748 full 64-bit address. The command
2750 set remoteaddresssize 32
2752 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2753 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2756 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2757 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2759 maint packet heythere
2761 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2762 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2765 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2766 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2767 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2769 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2771 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2772 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2773 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2775 * mask-address variable for Mips
2777 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2778 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2779 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2781 * Higher serial baud rates
2783 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2784 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2785 to achieve all of these rates.)
2789 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2790 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2793 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2795 * New native configurations
2797 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2798 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2799 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2800 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2801 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2802 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2803 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2807 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2808 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2809 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2810 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2811 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2812 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2813 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2814 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2815 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2816 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2817 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2819 * New debugging protocols
2821 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2822 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2823 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2824 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2825 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2826 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2830 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2831 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2836 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2837 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2839 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2841 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2842 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2843 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2845 * Live range splitting
2847 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2848 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2849 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2853 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2854 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2858 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2859 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2860 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2865 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2870 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2871 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2872 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2873 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2874 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2875 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2879 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2880 the symbol at the specified address.
2884 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2885 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2886 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2887 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2888 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2892 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2893 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2894 of most MIPS variants.
2898 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2899 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2900 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2904 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2905 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2906 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2907 the possible architectures.
2909 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2911 * New native configurations
2913 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2914 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2915 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2916 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2917 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2918 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2922 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2923 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2924 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2925 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2926 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2928 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2932 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2933 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2934 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2935 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2936 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2940 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2942 * Windows 95/NT native
2944 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2945 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2946 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2947 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2948 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2950 * dont-repeat command
2952 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2953 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2954 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2955 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2957 * Send break instead of ^C
2959 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2960 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2961 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2963 * Remote protocol timeout
2965 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2966 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2967 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2969 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2971 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2972 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2973 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2974 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2975 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2977 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2978 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2979 automatically on hpux10.
2981 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2983 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2985 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2987 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2988 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2989 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2990 every character. The default value is 1050.
2992 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2994 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2995 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2996 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2997 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2998 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2999 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3001 * Speedups for remote debugging
3003 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3004 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3005 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3007 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3009 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3010 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3012 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3014 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3016 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3017 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3019 * Remote targets use caching
3021 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3022 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3023 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3024 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3025 off' turns the the data cache off.
3027 * Remote targets may have threads
3029 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3030 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3031 gdb/remote.c for details.
3035 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3036 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3037 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3038 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3039 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3040 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3041 sequence is something like
3043 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3045 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3049 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3050 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3051 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3052 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3053 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3054 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3055 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3056 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3060 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3061 but does simplify configuration and building.
3065 GDB now supports hpux10.
3067 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3069 * New native configurations
3071 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3072 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3073 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3074 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3078 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3079 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3080 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3081 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3084 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3086 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3087 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3088 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3089 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3090 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3092 * Arguments to user-defined commands
3094 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3095 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3098 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3100 To execute the command use:
3103 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3104 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3105 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3107 * New `if' and `while' commands
3109 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3110 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3111 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3112 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3113 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3114 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3115 if the expression is zero.
3117 * Fortran source language mode
3119 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3120 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3121 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3122 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3125 * Better HPUX support
3127 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3128 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3129 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3130 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3131 that behavior do the following before running the program:
3137 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3138 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3144 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3145 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3148 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3149 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3151 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3153 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3154 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3155 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3156 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3157 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3158 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3160 * New DOS host serial code
3162 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3163 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3166 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3168 * New "complete" command
3170 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3171 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3173 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3175 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3176 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3178 * Breakpoint hit counts
3180 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3181 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3182 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3183 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3184 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3187 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3189 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3190 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3191 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3193 * Shared library breakpoints
3195 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3196 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3198 * Hardware watchpoints
3200 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3201 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3203 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3207 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3208 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3210 * Improved Irix 5 support
3212 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3214 * Improved HPPA support
3216 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3218 * New native configurations
3220 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3221 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3222 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3223 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3227 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3228 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3231 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3233 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3234 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3238 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3239 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3241 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3243 * Irix 5 is now supported
3247 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3248 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3249 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3250 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3251 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3254 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3256 * User visible changes:
3260 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3261 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3262 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3263 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3264 debugging info for the mips target).
3266 * DEC Alpha native support
3268 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3269 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3270 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3271 Alpha-specific notes.
3273 * Preliminary thread implementation
3275 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3277 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3279 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3280 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3283 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3285 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3286 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3287 call methods, ...etc.
3289 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3291 * User visible changes:
3293 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3294 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3295 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3296 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3298 Filename completion now works.
3300 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3301 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3302 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3304 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3305 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3306 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3307 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3308 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3312 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3313 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3316 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3320 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3321 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3322 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3326 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3327 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3328 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3329 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3330 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3334 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3335 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3336 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3338 * New targets supported
3340 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3341 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3342 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3343 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3344 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3346 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3347 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3348 GO32 memory extender.
3350 * New remote protocols
3352 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3354 * New source languages supported
3356 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3357 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3358 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3361 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3363 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3365 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3366 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3367 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3368 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3369 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3370 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3372 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3374 * Faster and better demangling
3376 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3377 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3378 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3379 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3380 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3381 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3384 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3385 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3386 compiler does not actually implement.
3388 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3390 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3391 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3392 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3393 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3394 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3395 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3398 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3399 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3401 * Improved configure script
3403 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3404 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3405 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3406 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3408 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3409 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3410 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3411 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3412 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3413 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3415 * Documentation improvements
3417 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3418 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3419 before submitting changes.
3421 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3422 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3423 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3424 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3425 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3427 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3428 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3429 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3430 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3431 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3432 around this problem.
3436 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3437 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3438 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3441 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3442 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3444 * New native hosts supported
3446 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3447 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3449 * New targets supported
3451 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3453 * New file formats supported
3455 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3456 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3460 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3462 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3463 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3465 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3466 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3467 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3469 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3470 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3472 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3473 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3474 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3477 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3478 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3479 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3480 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3481 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3483 * Internal improvements
3485 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3486 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3488 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3489 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3490 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3491 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3492 shared code that handles any of them.
3494 * New command line options
3496 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3500 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3501 General Public License.
3503 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3505 * Host/native/target split
3507 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3508 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3509 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3510 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3511 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3513 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3514 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3515 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3516 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3517 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3518 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3519 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3521 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3522 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3523 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3525 * New hosts supported
3527 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3528 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3529 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3531 * New targets supported
3533 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3534 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3536 * New native hosts supported
3538 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3539 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3540 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3542 * New file formats supported
3544 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3545 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3546 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3550 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3551 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3552 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3554 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3556 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3557 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3558 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3559 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3563 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3564 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3565 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3567 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3571 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3572 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3575 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3576 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3578 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3579 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3580 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3581 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3582 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3583 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3585 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3586 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3587 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3588 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3592 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3593 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3594 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3595 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3596 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3598 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3599 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3600 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3601 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3605 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3606 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3607 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3608 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3609 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3610 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3611 each instruction being stepped through.
3613 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3614 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3616 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3617 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3618 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3619 processor with a serial port.
3623 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3624 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3625 supported, and what files each one uses.
3629 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3630 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3631 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3632 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3634 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3635 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3636 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3637 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3641 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3642 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3643 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3644 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3645 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3646 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3648 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3651 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3653 * Better support for C++ function names
3655 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3656 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3657 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3658 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3659 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3661 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3662 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3663 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3664 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3665 for the list of formats.
3667 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3669 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3670 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3671 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3672 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3673 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3674 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3677 * New 'maintenance' command
3679 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3680 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3681 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3683 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3684 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3685 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3686 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3687 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3688 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3690 The following commands are new:
3692 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3693 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3694 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3696 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3698 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3699 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3700 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3701 read after argv processing.
3703 * New hosts supported
3705 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3707 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3709 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3710 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3711 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3712 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3713 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3716 * New targets supported
3718 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3720 * More smarts about finding #include files
3722 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3723 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3724 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3725 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3726 the one that contains your sources.
3728 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3729 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3730 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3732 * Interesting infernals change
3734 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3735 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3736 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3737 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3739 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3741 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3742 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3743 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3745 See the ChangeLog for details.
3747 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3749 * New machines supported (host and target)
3751 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3753 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3755 * New malloc package
3757 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3758 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3759 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3760 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3761 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3762 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3766 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3767 'help info proc' for details.
3769 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3771 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3772 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3775 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3777 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3778 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3779 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3780 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3781 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3782 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3784 * Cross byte order fixes
3786 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3787 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3789 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3791 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3792 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3793 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3794 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3795 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3796 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3797 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3798 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3799 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3800 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3802 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3803 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3804 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3805 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3807 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3808 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3809 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3812 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3814 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3815 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3816 shared across multiple host platforms.
3818 * longjmp() handling
3820 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3821 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3822 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3823 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3827 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3828 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3833 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3834 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3835 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3837 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3839 * New machines supported (host and target)
3841 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3843 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3844 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3846 * New machines supported (target)
3848 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3852 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3853 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3854 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3856 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3857 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3858 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3859 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3860 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3863 * New features for SVR4
3865 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3866 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3867 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3869 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3870 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3871 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3873 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3874 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3876 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3878 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3879 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3880 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3881 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3882 same code linked statically.
3886 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3887 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3888 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3889 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3890 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3891 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3895 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3896 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3897 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3900 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3902 * New machines supported (host and target)
3904 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3905 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3906 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3908 * Almost SCO Unix support
3910 We had hoped to support:
3911 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3912 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3913 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3914 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3916 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3918 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3919 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3920 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3921 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3926 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3927 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3928 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3932 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3933 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3934 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3936 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3938 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3939 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3940 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3942 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3943 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3944 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3945 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3948 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3949 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3950 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3951 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3954 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3955 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3958 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3959 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3960 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3963 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3965 * Improved configuration
3967 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3968 Porting BFD is simpler.
3972 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3973 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3974 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3975 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3979 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3981 * New host supported (not target)
3983 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3986 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3988 * Multiple source language support
3990 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3991 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3992 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3993 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3994 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3995 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3999 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4000 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4001 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4002 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4004 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4005 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4006 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4008 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4009 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4013 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4014 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4015 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4016 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4019 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4021 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4022 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4023 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4024 examining core files.
4028 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4031 * New machines supported (host and target)
4033 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4034 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4035 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4037 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4039 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4041 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4043 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4044 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4045 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4047 * New remote interfaces
4053 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4057 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4059 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4060 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4061 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4062 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4063 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4064 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4065 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4066 stub on the target system.
4068 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4070 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4071 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4072 object file types such as a.out and coff.
4074 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4075 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4078 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4080 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4081 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4083 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4084 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4085 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4087 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4088 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4089 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4090 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4092 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4093 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4094 it is already running. Default is ON.
4096 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4097 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4098 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4099 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4102 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4103 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4104 or the value of the environment variable
4107 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4108 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4111 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4112 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4113 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4115 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4116 history expansion will be performed on
4117 command line input. The default is OFF.
4119 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4120 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4121 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4123 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4124 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4125 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4128 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4129 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4130 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4133 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4134 ``set width'' instead.
4136 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4137 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4138 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4139 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4141 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4144 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4147 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4150 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4153 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4155 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4156 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4157 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4161 * Support for Shared Libraries
4163 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4164 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4165 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4166 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4167 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4168 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4169 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4170 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4172 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4173 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4174 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4176 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4181 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4182 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4183 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4184 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4185 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4186 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4188 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4190 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4192 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4193 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4194 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4197 * C++ multiple inheritance
4199 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4202 * C++ exception handling
4204 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4205 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4206 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4209 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4210 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4211 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4213 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4214 current stack frame.
4217 * Minor command changes
4219 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4220 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4221 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4223 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4224 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4225 frames without printing.
4227 * New directory command
4229 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4230 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4231 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4232 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4233 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4235 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4237 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4240 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4241 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4242 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4243 where the program that you are debugging will run.