[ARC] Fix typo in extension instruction name.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.11
5
6 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
7 descriptions.
8
9 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
10 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
11 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
12
13 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
14
15 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
16 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
17 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
18 signal received and code location.
19
20 For example:
21
22 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
23 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
24 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
25 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
26
27 * New commands
28
29 skip -file file
30 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
31 skip -function function
32 skip -rfunction regular-expression
33 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
34 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
35 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
36
37 maint info line-table REGEXP
38 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
39
40 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
41
42 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
43
44 * Per-inferior thread numbers
45
46 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
47 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
48 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
49
50 (gdb) info threads
51 Id Target Id Frame
52 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
53 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
54 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
55 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
56
57 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
58 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
59 are no longer unique between inferiors.
60
61 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
62 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
63 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
64
65 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
66 IDs.
67
68 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
69 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
70
71 (gdb) thread 2.1
72 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
73 (gdb)
74
75 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
76 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
77 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
78 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
79 threads 2.*".
80
81 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
82 all threads.
83
84 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
85 the current thread.
86
87 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
88 current inferior.
89
90 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
91 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
92 example:
93
94 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
95 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
96
97 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
98
99 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
100
101 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
102 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
103
104 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
105 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
106 clients.
107
108 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
109 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
110 at the same time.
111
112 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
113 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
114 into native code.
115
116 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
117
118 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
119 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
120 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
121
122 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
123 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
124
125 * New commands
126
127 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
128 maint show target-non-stop
129 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
130 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
131 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
132
133 maint set bfd-sharing
134 maint show bfd-sharing
135 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
136
137 set debug bfd-cache
138 show debug bfd-cache
139 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
140
141 set debug fbsd-lwp
142 show debug fbsd-lwp
143 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
144
145 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
146 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
147 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
148
149 set remote thread-events
150 show remote thread-events
151 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
152
153 set ada print-signatures on|off
154 show ada print-signatures"
155 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
156 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
157
158 set max-value-size
159 show max-value-size
160 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
161 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
162 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
163
164 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
165 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
166 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
167 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
168 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
169 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
170
171 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
172 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
173
174 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
175 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
176
177 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
178
179 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
180 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
181 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
182 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
183 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
184 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
185
186 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
187 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
188
189 * New remote packets
190
191 exec stop reason
192 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
193
194 exec-events feature in qSupported
195 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
196 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
197 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
198 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
199
200 vCtrlC
201 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
202 non-stop mode.
203
204 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
205 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
206
207 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
208 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
209
210 QThreadEvents
211 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
212 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
213 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
214 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
215 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
216 stop for that same thread.
217
218 N stop reply
219
220 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
221 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
222 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
223
224 QCatchSyscalls:1 [;SYSNO]...
225 QCatchSyscalls:0
226 Enable ("QCatchSyscalls:1") or disable ("QCatchSyscalls:0")
227 catching syscalls from the inferior process.
228
229 syscall_entry stop reason
230 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
231
232 syscall_return stop reason
233 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
234
235 QCatchSyscalls:1 in qSupported
236 The qSupported packet may now include QCatchSyscalls:1 in the reply
237 to indicate support for catching syscalls.
238
239 * Extended-remote exec events
240
241 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
242 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
243 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
244
245 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
246 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
247 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
248
249 * Thread names in remote protocol
250
251 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
252 thread.
253
254 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
255
256 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
257 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
258 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
259 fork and exec catchpoints.
260
261 * Remote syscall events
262
263 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
264 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
265
266 set remote catch-syscall-packet
267 show remote catch-syscall-packet
268 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
269
270 * MI changes
271
272 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
273 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
274 left.
275
276 * Python Scripting
277
278 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
279 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
280 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
281 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
282 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
283 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
284
285 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
286
287 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
288 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
289 including advance SIMD instructions.
290
291 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
292
293 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
294 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
295 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
296 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
297 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
298 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
299 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
300
301 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
302 cpu information :
303 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
304
305 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
306 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
307 remote serial I/O.
308
309 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
310 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
311 and may include things like its command line arguments.
312
313 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
314 is now available on all platforms.
315
316 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
317 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
318 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
319 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
320 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
321 backward compatibility.
322
323 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
324 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
325 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
326 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
327
328 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
329 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
330 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
331 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
332 packets" below.
333
334 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
335
336 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
337
338 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
339 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
340 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
341 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
342 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
343 See "New remote packets" below.
344
345 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
346 available register groups, including target specific groups.
347
348 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
349 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
350 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
351 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
352 are ignored.
353
354 * Guile Scripting
355
356 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
357
358 * Python Scripting
359
360 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
361 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
362 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
363 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
364 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
365 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
366 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
367 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
368 "const" version of the value respectively.
369
370 * New commands
371
372 maint print symbol-cache
373 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
374
375 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
376 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
377
378 maint flush-symbol-cache
379 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
380
381 record btrace bts
382 record bts
383 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
384
385 compile print
386 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
387
388 tui enable
389 tui disable
390 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
391
392 show mpx bound
393 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
394 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
395
396 record btrace pt
397 record pt
398 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
399
400 maint info btrace
401 Print information about branch tracing internals.
402
403 maint btrace packet-history
404 Print the raw branch tracing data.
405
406 maint btrace clear-packet-history
407 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
408
409 maint btrace clear
410 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
411 anew by the next "record" command.
412
413 * New options
414
415 set debug dwarf-die
416 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
417 show debug dwarf-die
418 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
419
420 set debug dwarf-read
421 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
422 show debug dwarf-read
423 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
424
425 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
426 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
427 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
428 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
429
430 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
431 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
432 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
433 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
434
435 set debug dwarf-line
436 show debug dwarf-line
437 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
438
439 set max-completions
440 show max-completions
441 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
442 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
443 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
444 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
445
446 set history remove-duplicates
447 show history remove-duplicates
448 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
449
450 maint set symbol-cache-size
451 maint show symbol-cache-size
452 Control the size of the symbol cache.
453
454 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
455 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
456 BTS format.
457 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
458 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
459
460 set debug linux-namespaces
461 show debug linux-namespaces
462 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
463
464 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
465 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
466 Intel Processor Trace format.
467 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
468 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
469
470 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
471 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
472 packet history.
473
474 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
475 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
476
477 * Python/Guile scripting
478
479 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
480 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
481
482 * New remote packets
483
484 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
485 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
486
487 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
488 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
489
490 Qbtrace:pt
491 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
492 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
493 qSupported query.
494
495 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
496 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
497 Trace format.
498
499 swbreak stop reason
500 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
501 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
502 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
503 mode operation.
504
505 hwbreak stop reason
506 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
507 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
508
509 vFile:fstat:
510 Return information about files on the remote system.
511
512 qXfer:exec-file:read
513 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
514 create a process running on the remote system.
515
516 vFile:setfs:
517 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
518 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
519 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
520 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
521
522 fork stop reason
523 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
524
525 vfork stop reason
526 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
527
528 vforkdone stop reason
529 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
530 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
531
532 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
533 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
534 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
535 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
536 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
537 whether these features are enabled.
538
539 * Extended-remote fork events
540
541 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
542 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
543 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
544 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
545
546 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
547 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
548 the btrace record target.
549 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
550
551 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
552 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
553
554 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
555 targets.
556
557 * Removed command line options
558
559 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
560
561 * Removed targets and native configurations
562
563 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
564 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
565
566 * New configure options
567
568 --with-intel-pt
569 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
570 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
571
572 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
573 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
574 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
575 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
576
577 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
578
579 * Python Scripting
580
581 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
582
583 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
584
585 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
586
587 * Python Scripting
588
589 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
590 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
591 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
592 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
593 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
594 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
595 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
596 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
597 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
598 selecting a new file to debug.
599 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
600 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
601
602 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
603 inferior.
604
605 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
606 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
607 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
608 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
609
610 * New Python-based convenience functions:
611
612 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
613 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
614 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
615 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
616
617 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
618 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
619 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
620 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
621 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
622 interface with this new feature are:
623
624 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
625 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
626
627 * New commands
628
629 demangle [-l language] [--] name
630 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
631 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
632 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
633 as "maint demangler-warning".
634
635 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
636 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
637
638 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
639 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
640 scripts.
641
642 maint print user-registers
643 List all currently available "user" registers.
644
645 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
646 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
647 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
648
649 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
650 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
651 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
652 provided.
653
654 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
655 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
656 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
657 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
658 at resume time.
659
660 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
661 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
662 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
663 switched threads meanwhile.
664
665 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
666
667 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
668 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
669 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
670 is now the default mode.
671
672 * New options
673
674 set debug symbol-lookup
675 show debug symbol-lookup
676 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
677
678 * MI changes
679
680 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
681 inferiors that have exited.
682
683 * New targets
684
685 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
686
687 * Removed targets
688
689 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
690
691 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
692 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
693 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
694 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
695 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
696
697 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
698 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
699 its alias "share", instead.
700
701 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
702
703 * New command line options
704
705 -D data-directory
706 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
707
708 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
709 as specified in ISO C99.
710
711 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
712 with or without disassembly.
713
714 * Guile scripting
715
716 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
717 available is determined at configure time.
718 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
719 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
720
721 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
722
723 guile [code]
724 gu [code]
725 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
726
727 guile-repl
728 gr
729 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
730
731 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
732 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
733
734 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
735 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
736
737 * New options
738
739 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
740 show print symbol-loading
741 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
742 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
743 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
744 becomes less useful.
745
746 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
747 show guile print-stack
748 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
749
750 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
751 show auto-load guile-scripts
752 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
753
754 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
755 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
756 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
757 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
758 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
759 usage of this option.
760
761 set auto-connect-native-target
762
763 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
764 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
765 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
766
767 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
768 show record btrace replay-memory-access
769 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
770
771 maint set target-async (on|off)
772 maint show target-async
773 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
774 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
775 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
776 occurring only in synchronous mode.
777
778 set mi-async (on|off)
779 show mi-async
780 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
781 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
782
783 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
784 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
785
786 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
787 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
788 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
789 "set target-async on" command.
790
791 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
792
793 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
794 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
795 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
796 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
797 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
798
799 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
800 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
801 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
802
803 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
804 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
805 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
806 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
807 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
808 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
809 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
810
811 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
812 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
813
814 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
815 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
816 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
817
818 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
819 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
820 memory or registers.
821
822 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
823
824 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
825 remote. It now works with all targets.
826
827 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
828 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
829 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
830 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
831 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
832 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
833 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
834 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
835 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
836 target-stack".
837
838 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
839 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
840 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
841
842 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
843
844 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
845 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
846 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
847
848 * New remote packets
849
850 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
851 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
852 branch trace incrementally.
853
854 * Python Scripting
855
856 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
857 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
858 available.
859 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
860 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
861 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
862 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
863 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
864
865 * New targets
866 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
867
868 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
869 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
870 its alias "share", instead.
871
872 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
873 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
874 instead.
875
876 * MI changes
877
878 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
879 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
880 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
881 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
882 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
883 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
884 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
885 commands and CLI execution commands.
886
887 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
888
889 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
890 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
891 recording has been added.
892
893 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
894
895 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
896 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
897
898 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
899 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
900 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
901 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
902 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
903 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
904 "void".
905
906 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
907
908 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
909
910 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
911 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
912 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
913 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
914
915 (gdb) p $rax
916 $1 = <not saved>
917
918 (gdb) info registers rax
919 rax <not saved>
920
921 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
922 "*value not available*".
923
924 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
925 to binaries.
926
927 * Python scripting
928
929 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
930 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
931 ** Line tables representation has been added.
932 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
933 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
934 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
935
936 * New targets
937
938 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
939 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
940 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
941
942 * Removed native configurations
943
944 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
945 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
946
947 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
948 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
949 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
950 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
951 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
952 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
953 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
954
955 * New commands:
956 catch rethrow
957 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
958 maint check-psymtabs
959 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
960 maint check-symtabs
961 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
962 maint expand-symtabs
963 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
964
965 show configuration
966 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
967
968 maint set|show per-command
969 maint set|show per-command space
970 maint set|show per-command time
971 maint set|show per-command symtab
972 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
973
974 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
975 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
976 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
977 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
978 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
979
980 info exceptions
981 info exceptions REGEXP
982 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
983 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
984 are listed.
985
986 * New options
987
988 set debug symfile off|on
989 show debug symfile
990 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
991 symbol tables within those files
992
993 set print raw frame-arguments
994 show print raw frame-arguments
995 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
996 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
997
998 set remote trace-status-packet
999 show remote trace-status-packet
1000 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1001
1002 set debug nios2
1003 show debug nios2
1004 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1005
1006 set range-stepping
1007 show range-stepping
1008 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1009
1010 set startup-with-shell
1011 show startup-with-shell
1012 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1013 directly.
1014
1015 set code-cache
1016 show code-cache
1017 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1018 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1019
1020 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1021 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1022 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1023 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1024 "set height 0".
1025
1026 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1027 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1028 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1029
1030 * New command-line options
1031 --configuration
1032 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1033
1034 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1035 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1036
1037 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1038 GDB command gcore.
1039
1040 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1041
1042 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1043 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1044
1045 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1046 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1047
1048 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1049 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1050 due to an uncaught signal.
1051
1052 * MI changes
1053
1054 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1055 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1056 command, which should contain "language-option".
1057
1058 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1059 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1060
1061 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1062 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1063 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1064 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1065 "undefined-command-error-code".
1066
1067 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1068 Trace Format now.
1069
1070 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1071
1072 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1073 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1074 are displayed.
1075
1076 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1077 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1078
1079 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1080 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1081 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1082
1083 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1084 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1085 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1086 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1087 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1088 "exec-run-start-option".
1089
1090 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1091 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1092
1093 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1094 the new "info exceptions" command.
1095
1096 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1097 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1098 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1099 ** ElinOS
1100 ** Wind River Linux
1101
1102 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1103 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1104 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1105 below.
1106
1107 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1108 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1109
1110 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1111 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1112 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1113
1114 * New remote packets
1115
1116 vCont;r
1117
1118 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1119 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1120 involvemement at each single-step.
1121
1122 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1123 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1124 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1125 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1126 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1127 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1128 speedup.
1129
1130 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1131
1132 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1133 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1134
1135 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1136 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1137 trace state variables.
1138
1139 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1140 target.
1141
1142 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1143 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1144
1145 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1146
1147 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1148 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1149 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1150 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1151
1152 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1153
1154 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1155 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1156 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1157 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1158
1159 set|show record full insn-number-max
1160 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1161 set|show record full memory-query
1162
1163 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1164 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1165 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1166 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1167 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1168
1169 record btrace
1170
1171 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1172 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1173
1174 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1175 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1176 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1177
1178 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1179 instruction granularity
1180
1181 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1182 function granularity
1183
1184 * New native configurations
1185
1186 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1187 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1188 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1189 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1190
1191 * New targets
1192
1193 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1194 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1195 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1196 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1197 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1198
1199 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1200 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1201 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1202 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1203 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1204 --data-directory command-line option.
1205
1206 * New command line options:
1207
1208 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1209 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1210
1211 * Removed command line options
1212
1213 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1214 Emacs.
1215
1216 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1217 type formatting.
1218
1219 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1220
1221 * Python scripting
1222
1223 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1224
1225 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1226
1227 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1228
1229 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1230
1231 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1232 of architecture in the Python API.
1233
1234 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1235 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1236
1237 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1238
1239 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1240 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1241 ** $_strlen(str)
1242 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1243
1244 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1245 given an argument.
1246
1247 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1248 default for GCC since November 2000.
1249
1250 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1251
1252 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1253 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1254
1255 * New configure options
1256
1257 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1258 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1259 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1260 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1261 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1262 options allow the user to override that default.
1263 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1264 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1265 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1266
1267 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1268
1269 catch signal
1270 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1271 conditions to be attached.
1272
1273 maint info bfds
1274 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1275
1276 python-interactive [command]
1277 pi [command]
1278 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1279 and print the result of expressions.
1280
1281 py [command]
1282 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1283
1284 enable type-printer [name]...
1285 disable type-printer [name]...
1286 Enable or disable type printers.
1287
1288 * Removed commands
1289
1290 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1291 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1292 instead.
1293
1294 * New options
1295
1296 set print type methods (on|off)
1297 show print type methods
1298 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1299 The default is to show them.
1300
1301 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1302 show print type typedefs
1303 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1304 The default is to show them.
1305
1306 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1307 show filename-display
1308 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1309 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1310
1311 set trace-buffer-size
1312 show trace-buffer-size
1313 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1314
1315 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1316 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1317 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1318
1319 set debug aarch64
1320 show debug aarch64
1321 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1322 The default is off.
1323
1324 set debug coff-pe-read
1325 show debug coff-pe-read
1326 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1327 exported symbols.
1328
1329 set debug mach-o
1330 show debug mach-o
1331 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1332 processing.
1333
1334 set debug notification
1335 show debug notification
1336 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1337
1338 * MI changes
1339
1340 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1341 "=cmd-param-changed".
1342 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1343 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1344 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1345 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1346 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1347 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1348 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1349 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1350 "=memory-changed".
1351 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1352 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1353 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1354 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1355 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1356 library load/unload events.
1357 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1358 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1359 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1360 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1361 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1362 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1363 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1364 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1365
1366 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1367 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1368 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1369 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1370
1371 * New remote packets
1372
1373 QTBuffer:size
1374 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1375 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1376
1377 Qbtrace:bts
1378 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1379 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1380 qSupported query.
1381
1382 Qbtrace:off
1383 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1384 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1385
1386 qXfer:btrace:read
1387 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1388 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1389
1390 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1391
1392 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1393 for more x32 ABI info.
1394
1395 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1396
1397 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1398
1399 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1400 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1401 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1402 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1403 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1404 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1405 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1406 "info os msg" lists message queues
1407 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1408
1409 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1410 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1411 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1412 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1413 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1414 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1415
1416 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1417 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1418 record/replay support.
1419
1420 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1421
1422 * Python scripting
1423
1424 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
1425 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
1426
1427 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
1428
1429 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
1430 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
1431
1432 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
1433
1434 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
1435 the source at which the symbol was defined.
1436
1437 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
1438 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
1439 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
1440 symbol's value.
1441
1442 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
1443 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
1444
1445 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
1446 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
1447 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
1448
1449 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
1450 object associated with a PC value.
1451
1452 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
1453 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
1454
1455 * Go language support.
1456 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
1457 language.
1458
1459 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1460 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1461
1462 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1463 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1464
1465 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
1466 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
1467 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
1468 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
1469 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
1470 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
1471
1472 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
1473 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
1474 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
1475 build/libcpp/expr.c.
1476
1477 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
1478 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
1479
1480 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
1481 since December 2007.
1482
1483 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
1484 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
1485 command does. For instance:
1486
1487 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
1488
1489 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
1490 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
1491 created, using the "condition" command.
1492
1493 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
1494 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
1495
1496 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
1497
1498 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
1499 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
1500 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
1501 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
1502 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
1503 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
1504 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
1505 files with older .gdb_index sections.
1506
1507 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
1508 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
1509 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
1510 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
1511 the .gdb_index section.
1512
1513 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1514
1515 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1516 target.
1517
1518 * MI changes
1519
1520 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1521
1522 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1523
1524 * New commands
1525
1526 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1527 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1528 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1529
1530 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1531 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1532
1533 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1534 several hits.
1535
1536 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
1537 C++ and Java objects.
1538
1539 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
1540 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
1541 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1542 configured with '--with-python'.
1543
1544 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1545 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1546 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1547 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1548 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1549 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1550 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1551
1552 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1553 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1554 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1555 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1556
1557 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1558 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1559 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1560 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1561
1562 ** "set print symbol"
1563 "show print symbol"
1564 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1565 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1566 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1567
1568 * Deprecated commands
1569
1570 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1571 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1572
1573 * New targets
1574
1575 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1576 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
1577
1578 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1579 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1580 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1581 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1582 evaluates to true.
1583
1584 * New options
1585
1586 set mips compression
1587 show mips compression
1588 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1589 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1590 mips16
1591 micromips
1592 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1593
1594 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1595 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
1596 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
1597 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1598 available mode.
1599 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1600 target.
1601
1602 set auto-load off
1603 Disable auto-loading globally.
1604
1605 show auto-load
1606 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1607
1608 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1609 show auto-load gdb-scripts
1610 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1611
1612 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1613 show auto-load python-scripts
1614 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1615
1616 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1617 show auto-load local-gdbinit
1618 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1619
1620 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1621 show auto-load libthread-db
1622 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1623
1624 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1625 show auto-load scripts-directory
1626 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1627 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1628 of the directories listed by this option.
1629 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1630
1631 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1632 show auto-load safe-path
1633 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1634 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1635
1636 set debug auto-load on|off
1637 show debug auto-load
1638 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1639
1640 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
1641 show dprintf-style
1642 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1643 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1644 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1645 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
1646
1647 set dprintf-function <expr>
1648 show dprintf-function
1649 set dprintf-channel <expr>
1650 show dprintf-channel
1651 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1652 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1653
1654 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1655 show disconnected-dprintf
1656 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1657 after GDB disconnects.
1658
1659 * New configure options
1660
1661 --with-auto-load-dir
1662 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1663 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1664 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1665 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1666 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
1667
1668 --with-auto-load-safe-path
1669 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
1670 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
1671
1672 --without-auto-load-safe-path
1673 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1674 security feature.
1675
1676 * New remote packets
1677
1678 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1679
1680 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1681 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1682 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1683 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1684
1685 QProgramSignals:
1686
1687 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1688 program without GDB involvement.
1689
1690 * New command line options
1691
1692 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1693 before loading inferior.
1694 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1695 execute it before loading inferior.
1696
1697 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
1698
1699 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1700 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1701 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1702 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1703 inferior changes.
1704
1705 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1706 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1707
1708 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1709 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1710 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1711 target hardware watchpoint.
1712
1713 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1714 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1715 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1716 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1717
1718 * Python scripting
1719
1720 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
1721 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
1722 existing one.
1723
1724 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
1725 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1726 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1727 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1728 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1729 the stack trace.
1730
1731 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
1732 Python API.
1733
1734 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1735 modules library. This module provides functionality for
1736 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
1737 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1738 corresponding value.
1739
1740 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1741 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1742 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1743 on GDB start-up.
1744
1745 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1746 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1747 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1748 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1749
1750 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1751
1752 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1753 "gdb.breakpoints".
1754
1755 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1756 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1757 available in the CLI.
1758
1759 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1760 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1761 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1762 "some_type.items()".
1763
1764 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1765 new object file.
1766
1767 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1768 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1769 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1770 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1771 any anonymous fields.
1772
1773 * MI changes
1774
1775 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1776 "solib-event".
1777
1778 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1779 "=breakpoint-modified".
1780
1781 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1782
1783 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1784 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1785 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1786 lives.
1787
1788 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1789 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1790 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1791 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1792 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1793
1794 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1795 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1796
1797 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1798 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1799 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1800 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1801 use this option to specify where to find it.
1802
1803 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1804 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1805 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1806 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1807 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1808 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1809 section in the user manual for more details.
1810
1811 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1812 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1813 become available after that.
1814
1815 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
1816
1817 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1818 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1819 gcc version 4.7.
1820
1821 * New commands
1822
1823 !SHELL COMMAND
1824 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1825 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1826
1827 * Changed commands
1828
1829 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1830 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1831 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1832
1833 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1834 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1835 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1836
1837 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1838 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1839 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1840 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1841 name starts with a hyphen.
1842
1843 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1844 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1845 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1846 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1847 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1848 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1849 number of bytes that will be collected.
1850
1851 tstart [NOTES]
1852 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1853 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1854 setting the variable trace-notes.
1855
1856 tstop [NOTES]
1857 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1858 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1859 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1860 trace-stop-notes.
1861
1862 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1863 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1864 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1865 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1866 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1867 is running.
1868
1869 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1870 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1871 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1872
1873 * New options
1874
1875 set debug dwarf2-read
1876 show debug dwarf2-read
1877 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1878 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1879
1880 set debug symtab-create
1881 show debug symtab-create
1882 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1883 creation. The default is off.
1884
1885 set extended-prompt
1886 show extended-prompt
1887 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1888 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1889 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1890 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1891 prompt is displayed.
1892
1893 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1894 show print entry-values
1895 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1896 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1897 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1898
1899 set debug entry-values
1900 show debug entry-values
1901 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1902 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1903
1904 set basenames-may-differ
1905 show basenames-may-differ
1906 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1907 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1908 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1909 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1910 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1911 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1912 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1913 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1914
1915 set trace-user
1916 show trace-user
1917 set trace-notes
1918 show trace-notes
1919 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1920 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1921 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1922 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1923
1924 set trace-stop-notes
1925 show trace-stop-notes
1926 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1927 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1928 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1929 started by someone else.
1930
1931 * New remote packets
1932
1933 QTEnable
1934
1935 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1936
1937 QTDisable
1938
1939 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1940
1941 QTNotes
1942
1943 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1944
1945 qTP
1946
1947 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1948
1949 qTMinFTPILen
1950
1951 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1952 be placed.
1953
1954 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1955 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1956
1957 * New targets
1958
1959 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1960
1961 * New Simulators
1962
1963 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1964
1965 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1966
1967 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1968
1969 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
1970
1971 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1972 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1973 matches the given regular expression.
1974
1975 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1976
1977 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1978 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1979
1980 * New command line options
1981
1982 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1983 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1984
1985 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1986 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1987
1988 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1989 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1990 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1991
1992 * GDB now understands thread names.
1993
1994 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1995 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1996
1997 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1998 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1999
2000 * OpenCL C
2001 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2002 has been integrated into GDB.
2003
2004 * Python scripting
2005
2006 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2007 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2008 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2009
2010 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2011 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2012 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2013 and allows for more dynamic content.
2014
2015 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2016 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2017 have an is_valid method.
2018
2019 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2020 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2021 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2022
2023 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2024
2025 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2026 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2027 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2028 that function like so:
2029
2030 result = some_value (10,20)
2031
2032 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2033 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2034 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2035
2036 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2037 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2038 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2039 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2040 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2041
2042 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2043 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2044
2045 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2046
2047 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2048 selected thread.
2049
2050 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2051 holds the thread's name.
2052
2053 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2054 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2055 occurring in the process being debugged.
2056 The following events are currently supported:
2057 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2058 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2059 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2060
2061 * C++ Improvements:
2062
2063 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2064 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2065
2066 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2067
2068 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2069 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2070 was added to GCC 4.5.
2071
2072 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2073 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2074 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2075 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2076 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2077 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2078
2079 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2080 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2081 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2082 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2083 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2084
2085 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2086 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2087 execution to a label.
2088
2089 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2090 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2091 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2092 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2093
2094 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2095 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2096 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2097 of scope.
2098
2099 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2100
2101 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2102 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2103 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2104 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2105 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2106 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2107
2108 (gdb) info threads
2109 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2110
2111 While now you see this:
2112
2113 (gdb) info threads
2114 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2115
2116 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2117 dumps.
2118
2119 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2120 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2121 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2122 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2123
2124 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2125 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2126 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2127 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2128 section in the user manual for more details.
2129
2130 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2131
2132 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2133 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2134
2135 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2136
2137 * New native configurations
2138
2139 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2140
2141 * New targets:
2142
2143 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2144
2145 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2146 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2147 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2148 in the GDB user manual.
2149
2150 * Guile support was removed.
2151
2152 * New features in the GNU simulator
2153
2154 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2155
2156 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2157
2158 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2159
2160 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2161
2162 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2163 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2164 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2165 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2166 was always disabled for such configurations.
2167
2168 * C++ Improvements:
2169
2170 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2171
2172 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2173 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2174 For example:
2175 namespace A
2176 {
2177 class B { };
2178 void foo (B) { }
2179 }
2180 ...
2181 A::B b
2182 foo(b)
2183 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2184 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2185 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2186
2187 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2188
2189 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2190 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2191 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2192 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2193 entry.
2194 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2195 mentioned flavors of operators.
2196
2197 ** static const class members
2198
2199 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2200 class definition has been fixed.
2201
2202 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2203
2204 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2205 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2206 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2207 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2208 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2209 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2210
2211 * Static tracepoints
2212
2213 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2214 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2215 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2216 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2217 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2218 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2219 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2220 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2221 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2222 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2223 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2224 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2225 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2226 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2227 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2228 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2229 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2230 the "New remote packets" section below.
2231
2232 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2233
2234 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2235 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2236 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2237 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2238
2239 * Observer mode
2240
2241 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2242 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2243 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2244 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2245 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2246 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2247 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2248
2249 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2250 current thread.
2251
2252 * New remote packets
2253
2254 qGetTIBAddr
2255
2256 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2257
2258 qRelocInsn
2259
2260 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2261 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2262 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2263 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2264 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2265 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2266
2267 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2268
2269 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2270
2271 qTSTMat
2272
2273 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2274 program.
2275
2276 qXfer:statictrace:read
2277
2278 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2279 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2280 to gdb's qSupported query.
2281
2282 QAllow
2283
2284 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2285
2286 QTDPsrc
2287
2288 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2289 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2290
2291 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2292 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2293 a directory.
2294
2295 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2296
2297 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2298 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2299 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2300 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2301
2302 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2303 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2304 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2305 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2306 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2307 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2308 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2309
2310 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2311 for static tracepoints support.
2312
2313 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2314
2315 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2316 it understands register description.
2317
2318 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2319
2320 * X86 general purpose registers
2321
2322 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2323 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2324 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2325 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2326 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2327
2328 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2329 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2330 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2331 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2332 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2333 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2334
2335 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2336 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2337 in the specified file.
2338
2339 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2340 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2341 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2342 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2343 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2344 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2345 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2346 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2347 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2348 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2349
2350 * New commands
2351
2352 eval template, expressions...
2353 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2354 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2355
2356 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2357 show target-file-system-kind
2358 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2359 names.
2360
2361 save breakpoints <filename>
2362 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2363 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2364 definitions, use the `source' command.
2365
2366 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2367 is now deprecated.
2368
2369 info static-tracepoint-markers
2370 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2371
2372 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2373 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2374 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2375
2376 set observer on|off
2377 show observer
2378 Enable and disable observer mode.
2379
2380 set may-write-registers on|off
2381 set may-write-memory on|off
2382 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2383 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2384 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2385 set may-interrupt on|off
2386 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2387 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2388 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2389 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2390 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2391 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2392 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2393
2394 set record memory-query on|off
2395 show record memory-query
2396 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2397 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2398
2399 * Changed commands
2400
2401 disassemble
2402 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2403
2404 * Python scripting
2405
2406 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2407 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2408 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2409 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2410 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2411
2412 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
2413 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2414 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2415 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
2416
2417 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
2418 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2419
2420 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
2421
2422 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
2423
2424 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
2425
2426 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
2427 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
2428 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
2429
2430 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
2431 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
2432 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
2433 regular breakpoints.
2434
2435 * New targets
2436
2437 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2438
2439 * D language support.
2440 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
2441 language.
2442
2443 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
2444 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
2445 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
2446 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
2447 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
2448
2449 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
2450 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
2451 conditions of the form:
2452
2453 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
2454
2455 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
2456 interface mentioned above.
2457
2458 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
2459
2460 * C++ Improvements
2461
2462 ** Namespace Support
2463
2464 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
2465 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
2466 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
2467 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
2468 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
2469
2470 ** Bug Fixes
2471
2472 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
2473 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
2474 qualified name.
2475
2476 ** Cast Operators
2477
2478 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
2479 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
2480
2481 * New targets
2482
2483 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
2484 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2485
2486 * New Simulators
2487
2488 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
2489 Renesas RX rx
2490
2491 * Multi-program debugging.
2492
2493 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
2494 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
2495 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
2496 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
2497 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
2498 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
2499 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
2500 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
2501
2502 * New tracing features
2503
2504 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
2505
2506 ** Trace state variables
2507
2508 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
2509 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
2510 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
2511 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2512 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2513 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2514 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2515 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2516 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2517 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
2518
2519 ** Fast tracepoints
2520
2521 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2522 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2523 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2524 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2525 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2526 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2527 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2528 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2529 the regular trace command.
2530
2531 ** Disconnected tracing
2532
2533 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2534 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2535 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2536 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2537 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2538
2539 ** Trace files
2540
2541 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2542 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2543 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2544 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2545 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2546 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2547 <name>".
2548
2549 ** Circular trace buffer
2550
2551 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2552 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2553 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2554 not be available for all target agents.
2555
2556 * Changed commands
2557
2558 disassemble
2559 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2560 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2561
2562 info variables
2563 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2564 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2565
2566 source
2567 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2568 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2569 support.
2570
2571 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2572 "set script-extension" (see below).
2573
2574 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2575
2576 record save [<FILENAME>]
2577 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2578 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2579
2580 record restore <FILENAME>
2581 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2582 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2583
2584 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2585 Add a new inferior.
2586
2587 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2588 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2589 inferior has loaded.
2590
2591 remove-inferior ID
2592 Remove an inferior.
2593
2594 maint info program-spaces
2595 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2596
2597 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2598 show remote interrupt-sequence
2599 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2600 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2601 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2602 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2603 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2604
2605 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2606 show remote interrupt-on-connect
2607 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2608 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2609 Linux kernel.
2610
2611 set remotebreak [on | off]
2612 show remotebreak
2613 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2614
2615 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2616 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2617
2618 info tvariables
2619 List trace state variables and their values.
2620
2621 delete tvariable $NAME ...
2622 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2623
2624 teval EXPR, ...
2625 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2626 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2627
2628 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2629 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2630
2631 * New expression syntax
2632
2633 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2634 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2635
2636 * New options
2637
2638 set follow-exec-mode new|same
2639 show follow-exec-mode
2640 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2641 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2642 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2643
2644 set default-collect EXPR, ...
2645 show default-collect
2646 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2647 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2648 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2649
2650 set disconnected-tracing
2651 show disconnected-tracing
2652 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2653 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2654 upon disconnection.
2655
2656 set circular-trace-buffer
2657 show circular-trace-buffer
2658 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2659 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2660 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2661 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2662
2663 set script-extension off|soft|strict
2664 show script-extension
2665 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2666 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2667 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2668 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2669 evaluation failed.
2670 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2671
2672 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2673 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2674 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2675 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2676 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2677 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2678 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2679 is on.
2680
2681 * Python API Improvements
2682
2683 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2684 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2685 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2686
2687 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2688 `is_base_class' attribute.
2689
2690 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2691
2692 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2693 evaluate an expression.
2694
2695 * New remote packets
2696
2697 QTDV
2698 Define a trace state variable.
2699
2700 qTV
2701 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2702
2703 QTDisconnected
2704 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2705
2706 QTBuffer:circular
2707 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2708
2709 qTfP, qTsP
2710 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2711
2712 * Bug fixes
2713
2714 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2715
2716 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2717 much more reliable. In particular:
2718 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2719 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2720 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2721 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2722 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2723 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2724 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2725 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2726 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2727 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2728 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2729 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2730 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2731 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2732 non-threaded programs.
2733
2734 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2735 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2736 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2737 executable program.
2738
2739 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
2740
2741 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2742 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2743 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2744 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2745 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2746
2747 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2748 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2749 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2750 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2751 for tracepoint actions.
2752
2753 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2754 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2755 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
2756
2757 * Process record and replay
2758
2759 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2760 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2761 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2762 execute commands.
2763
2764 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2765 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2766 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2767 reverse execution.
2768
2769 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2770 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
2771 2.6.28 or later.
2772
2773 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2774 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2775 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2776 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2777 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2778 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2779 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2780 the installation instructions for more information.
2781
2782 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2783 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2784 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2785 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2786
2787 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2788 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2789
2790 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2791 now complete on file names.
2792
2793 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2794 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2795 For instance, consider:
2796
2797 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2798 # struct example variable;
2799 (gdb) p variable.
2800
2801 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2802 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2803
2804 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2805 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2806
2807 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2808 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2809 macros.
2810
2811 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
2812 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2813 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2814
2815 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2816 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2817 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2818 and simulator targets may also provide them.
2819
2820 * New remote packets
2821
2822 qSearch:memory:
2823 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2824
2825 QStartNoAckMode
2826 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2827 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2828 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2829
2830 vKill
2831 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2832 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2833
2834 qXfer:osdata:read
2835 Obtains additional operating system information
2836
2837 qXfer:siginfo:read
2838 qXfer:siginfo:write
2839 Read or write additional signal information.
2840
2841 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2842
2843 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2844 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2845 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2846
2847 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
2848 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
2849
2850 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
2851 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2852 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
2853
2854 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2855 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2856
2857 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2858
2859 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2860
2861 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2862 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2863
2864 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
2865 list of section offsets.
2866
2867 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2868 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2869 have also been fixed.
2870
2871 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
2872 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2873 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
2874
2875 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2876 example, given:
2877
2878 template<typename T> class C { };
2879 C<char const *> c;
2880
2881 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2882
2883 ptype C<char const *>
2884 ptype C<char const*>
2885 ptype C<const char *>
2886 ptype C<const char*>
2887
2888 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2889
2890 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2891 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2892
2893 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2894 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2895 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2896
2897 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2898 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2899
2900 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2901 gdbserver.
2902
2903 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2904 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2905
2906 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2907 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2908 as appropriate.
2909
2910 * Python scripting
2911
2912 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2913 available is determined at configure time.
2914
2915 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2916
2917 * Ada tasking support
2918
2919 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2920 been introduced:
2921
2922 info tasks
2923 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2924 info task N
2925 Print detailed information about task number N.
2926 task
2927 Print the task number of the current task.
2928 task N
2929 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2930
2931 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2932 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2933
2934 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2935
2936 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2937 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2938 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2939 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2940 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2941 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2942 below.
2943
2944 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2945 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2946 information.
2947
2948 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2949 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2950 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2951 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2952 more information.
2953
2954 * Multi-architecture debugging.
2955
2956 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2957 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2958 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2959 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2960 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2961
2962 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2963 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2964 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2965 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2966 --enable-targets configure option.
2967
2968 * Non-stop mode debugging.
2969
2970 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2971 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2972 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2973 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2974 section in the user manual for more information.
2975
2976 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2977 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2978 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2979 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2980 extensions on linux targets.
2981
2982 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2983
2984 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2985 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2986 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2987 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2988 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2989 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2990 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2991 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2992 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2993
2994 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2995 val1 [, val2, ...]
2996 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2997
2998 maint set python print-stack
2999 maint show python print-stack
3000 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3001
3002 python [CODE]
3003 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3004
3005 macro define
3006 macro list
3007 macro undef
3008 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3009 interactively.
3010
3011 info os processes
3012 Show operating system information about processes.
3013
3014 info inferiors
3015 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3016
3017 inferior NUM
3018 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3019
3020 detach inferior NUM
3021 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3022
3023 kill inferior NUM
3024 Kill inferior number NUM.
3025
3026 * New options
3027
3028 set spu stop-on-load
3029 show spu stop-on-load
3030 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3031
3032 set spu auto-flush-cache
3033 show spu auto-flush-cache
3034 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3035 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3036
3037 set sh calling-convention
3038 show sh calling-convention
3039 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3040
3041 set debug timestamp
3042 show debug timestamp
3043 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3044
3045 set disassemble-next-line
3046 show disassemble-next-line
3047 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3048 the debuggee stops.
3049
3050 set remote noack-packet
3051 show remote noack-packet
3052 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3053 under "New remote packets."
3054
3055 set remote query-attached-packet
3056 show remote query-attached-packet
3057 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3058
3059 set remote read-siginfo-object
3060 show remote read-siginfo-object
3061 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3062 packet.
3063
3064 set remote write-siginfo-object
3065 show remote write-siginfo-object
3066 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3067 packet.
3068
3069 set remote reverse-continue
3070 show remote reverse-continue
3071 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3072
3073 set remote reverse-step
3074 show remote reverse-step
3075 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3076
3077 set displaced-stepping
3078 show displaced-stepping
3079 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3080 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3081 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3082
3083 set debug displaced
3084 show debug displaced
3085 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3086
3087 maint set internal-error
3088 maint show internal-error
3089 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3090
3091 maint set internal-warning
3092 maint show internal-warning
3093 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3094
3095 set exec-wrapper
3096 show exec-wrapper
3097 unset exec-wrapper
3098 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3099
3100 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3101 show multiple-symbols
3102 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3103 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3104 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3105
3106 set breakpoint always-inserted
3107 show breakpoint always-inserted
3108 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3109 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3110 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3111
3112 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3113 show arm fallback-mode
3114 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3115 show arm force-mode
3116 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3117 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3118 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3119 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3120
3121 set disable-randomization
3122 show disable-randomization
3123 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3124 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3125 multiple debugging sessions.
3126
3127 set non-stop
3128 show non-stop
3129 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3130 a breakpoint.
3131
3132 set target-async
3133 show target-async
3134 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3135 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3136 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3137 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3138
3139 set target-wide-charset
3140 show target-wide-charset
3141 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3142 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3143
3144 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3145 show tcp auto-retry
3146 set tcp connect-timeout
3147 show tcp connect-timeout
3148 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3149 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3150 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3151
3152 set libthread-db-search-path
3153 show libthread-db-search-path
3154 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3155 libthread_db.
3156
3157 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3158 show schedule-multiple
3159 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3160 the current process.
3161
3162 set stack-cache
3163 show stack-cache
3164 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3165 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3166 affecting correctness.
3167
3168 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3169 show interactive-mode
3170 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3171 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3172 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3173 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3174 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3175
3176 * Removed commands
3177
3178 info forks
3179 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3180 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3181 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3182 command.
3183
3184 fork NUM
3185 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3186 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3187 alias for the `fork' command.
3188
3189 process PID
3190 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3191 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3192 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3193
3194 delete fork NUM
3195 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3196 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3197 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3198 fork' command.
3199
3200 detach fork NUM
3201 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3202 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3203 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3204 fork' command.
3205
3206 * New native configurations
3207
3208 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3209
3210 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3211
3212 * New targets
3213
3214 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3215 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3216 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3217 S+core 3 score-*-*
3218
3219 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3220 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3221
3222 * Removed commands
3223
3224 catch load
3225 catch unload
3226 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3227
3228 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3229
3230 * New native configurations
3231
3232 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3233 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3234
3235 * New targets
3236
3237 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3238 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3239
3240 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3241
3242 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3243 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3244 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3245 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3246
3247 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3248 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3249
3250 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3251 is resolved.
3252
3253 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3254 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3255 and in inlined functions.
3256
3257 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3258 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3259 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3260
3261 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3262
3263 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3264 registers on PowerPC targets.
3265
3266 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3267 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3268
3269 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3270 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3271
3272 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3273 extended-remote mode.
3274
3275 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3276 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3277 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3278 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3279
3280 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3281 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3282 target architectures.
3283
3284 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3285 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3286 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3287 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3288
3289 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3290 breakpoints now.
3291
3292 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3293 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3294 include:
3295 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3296 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3297 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3298 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3299 of an assignment
3300 - Improved command completion in Ada
3301 - Several bug fixes
3302
3303 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3304 process.
3305
3306 * New commands
3307
3308 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3309 show print frame-arguments
3310 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3311 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3312
3313 remote put
3314 remote get
3315 remote delete
3316 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3317
3318 * New MI commands
3319
3320 -target-file-put
3321 -target-file-get
3322 -target-file-delete
3323 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3324
3325 * New remote packets
3326
3327 vFile:open:
3328 vFile:close:
3329 vFile:pread:
3330 vFile:pwrite:
3331 vFile:unlink:
3332 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3333
3334 vAttach
3335 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3336 mode.
3337
3338 vRun
3339 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3340
3341 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3342
3343 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3344 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3345 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3346
3347 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3348 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3349 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3350
3351 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3352 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3353 is not supported.
3354
3355 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3356 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3357
3358 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3359 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3360
3361 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3362
3363 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3364 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3365 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3366
3367 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3368 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3369
3370 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3371 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3372 as strings.
3373
3374 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3375 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3376 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3377
3378 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3379 iWMMXt coprocessor.
3380
3381 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3382 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3383 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3384
3385 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3386
3387 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3388
3389 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3390 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3391 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3392
3393 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3394 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3395
3396 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3397 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3398 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3399 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3400 Windows and SymbianOS).
3401
3402 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3403 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3404
3405 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3406 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3407
3408 * New commands
3409
3410 set remoteflow
3411 show remoteflow
3412 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3413 when debugging using remote targets.
3414
3415 set mem inaccessible-by-default
3416 show mem inaccessible-by-default
3417 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3418 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3419 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3420 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3421 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3422
3423 set breakpoint auto-hw
3424 show breakpoint auto-hw
3425 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3426 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3427 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
3428 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
3429 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
3430 including "next" and "finish".
3431
3432 catch exception
3433 catch exception unhandled
3434 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
3435
3436 catch assert
3437 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
3438
3439 set sysroot
3440 show sysroot
3441 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
3442 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
3443 an alias to "set sysroot".
3444
3445 info spu
3446 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
3447 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
3448 architecture.
3449
3450 * New native configurations
3451
3452 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
3453
3454 set tdesc filename
3455 unset tdesc filename
3456 show tdesc filename
3457 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
3458 not query the target for its built-in description.
3459
3460 * New targets
3461
3462 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
3463 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
3464 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
3465
3466 * New remote packets
3467
3468 QPassSignals:
3469 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
3470 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
3471
3472 qXfer:features:read:
3473 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
3474 features.
3475
3476 qXfer:spu:read:
3477 qXfer:spu:write:
3478 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
3479 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
3480
3481 qXfer:libraries:read:
3482 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
3483 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
3484 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
3485 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
3486
3487 * Removed targets
3488
3489 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3490
3491 alpha*-*-osf1*
3492 alpha*-*-osf2*
3493 d10v-*-*
3494 hppa*-*-hiux*
3495 i[34567]86-ncr-*
3496 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
3497 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
3498 i[34567]86-*-netware*
3499 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
3500 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
3501 i[34567]86-*-sco*
3502 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
3503 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
3504 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
3505 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
3506 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
3507 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
3508 i[34567]86-*-isc*
3509 m68*-cisco*-*
3510 m68*-tandem-*
3511 mips*-*-pe
3512 rs6000-*-lynxos*
3513 sh*-*-pe
3514
3515 * Other removed features
3516
3517 target abug
3518 target cpu32bug
3519 target est
3520 target rom68k
3521
3522 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3523
3524 target hms
3525 target e7000
3526 target sh3
3527 target sh3e
3528
3529 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3530 H8/300.
3531
3532 target ocd
3533
3534 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3535 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3536 interfaces.
3537
3538 DWARF 1 support
3539
3540 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3541 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3542
3543 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3544
3545 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3546 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3547 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3548 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3549
3550 MIPS ".pdr" sections
3551
3552 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3553 in debugging information.
3554
3555 Scheme support
3556
3557 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3558 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3559
3560 set mips stack-arg-size
3561 set mips saved-gpreg-size
3562
3563 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3564
3565 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
3566
3567 * New targets
3568
3569 Xtensa xtensa-elf
3570 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
3571
3572 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3573 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3574 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3575
3576 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3577 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3578 supported.
3579
3580 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3581 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3582
3583 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3584 stub provides the required support.
3585
3586 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3587 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3588
3589 * New commands
3590
3591 set substitute-path
3592 unset substitute-path
3593 show substitute-path
3594 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3595 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3596 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3597 between compilation and debugging.
3598
3599 set trace-commands
3600 show trace-commands
3601 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3602 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3603 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3604
3605 * REMOVED features
3606
3607 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3608
3609 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3610 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3611
3612 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3613
3614 * New remote packets
3615
3616 qSupported:
3617 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3618 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3619 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3620 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3621 target.
3622
3623 qXfer:auxv:read:
3624 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3625 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3626
3627 qXfer:memory-map:read:
3628 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3629 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3630
3631 vFlashErase:
3632 vFlashWrite:
3633 vFlashDone:
3634 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3635
3636 * Removed remote packets
3637
3638 qPart:auxv:read:
3639 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3640 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3641
3642 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
3643
3644 * New targets
3645
3646 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3647
3648 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3649
3650 * New commands
3651
3652 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3653 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3654
3655 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3656
3657 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3658
3659 restart <n> Return the program state to a
3660 previously saved state.
3661
3662 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3663
3664 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3665
3666 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3667 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3668
3669 info forks List forks of the user program that
3670 are available to be debugged.
3671
3672 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3673 forks of the user program that are
3674 available to be debugged.
3675
3676 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3677 that are available to be debugged (and
3678 kill the forked process).
3679
3680 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3681 that are available to be debugged (and
3682 allow the process to continue).
3683
3684 * New architecture
3685
3686 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3687
3688 * Improved Windows host support
3689
3690 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3691 native console support, and remote communications using either
3692 network sockets or serial ports.
3693
3694 * Improved Modula-2 language support
3695
3696 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3697 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3698 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3699 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3700 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3701 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3702
3703 * REMOVED features
3704
3705 The ARM rdi-share module.
3706
3707 The Netware NLM debug server.
3708
3709 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
3710
3711 * New native configurations
3712
3713 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
3714 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3715
3716 * New targets
3717
3718 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3719
3720 * New command line options
3721
3722 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3723 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3724 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3725 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3726 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3727 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3728 with the --command (-x) option.
3729
3730 * Deprecated commands removed
3731
3732 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3733 removed:
3734
3735 Command Replacement
3736 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3737 othernames set arm disassembler
3738 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3739 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3740 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3741 regs info registers
3742
3743 * New BSD user-level threads support
3744
3745 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3746 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3747 configurations are:
3748
3749 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3750 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3751 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3752
3753 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3754 are not yet supported.
3755
3756 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3757 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3758
3759 * REMOVED configurations and files
3760
3761 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
3762 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3763 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
3764
3765 * New "set print array-indexes" command
3766
3767 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3768 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3769 behavior.
3770
3771 * VAX floating point support
3772
3773 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3774
3775 * User-defined command support
3776
3777 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3778 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3779 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3780
3781 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3782
3783 * New command line option
3784
3785 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3786 debugging.
3787
3788 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3789
3790 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3791 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3792 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3793 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3794 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
3795
3796 * Internationalization
3797
3798 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3799 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3800 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3801
3802 * Ada
3803
3804 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3805 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3806 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3807
3808 * New native configurations
3809
3810 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3811
3812 * Remote 'p' packet
3813
3814 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3815 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3816
3817 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3818
3819 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3820 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3821 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3822 i386 application).
3823
3824 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3825 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3826 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3827 configurations:
3828
3829 hppa-*-hpux
3830 ia64-*-aix
3831 mips-*-irix*
3832 *-*-lynx
3833 mips-*-linux-gnu
3834 sds protocol
3835 xdr protocol
3836 powerpc bdm protocol
3837
3838 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3839 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3840
3841 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3842
3843 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3844 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3845 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3846 permanently REMOVED.
3847
3848 h8300-*-*
3849 mcore-*-*
3850 mn10300-*-*
3851 ns32k-*-*
3852 sh64-*-*
3853 v850-*-*
3854
3855 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3856
3857 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3858
3859 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3860 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3861 been fixed.
3862
3863 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3864
3865 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3866 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3867 IRIX long double values).
3868
3869 * VAX and "next"
3870
3871 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3872 command. This problem has been fixed.
3873
3874 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
3875
3876 * Fix for ``many threads''
3877
3878 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3879 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3880 error message:
3881
3882 ptrace: No such process.
3883 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3884
3885 This problem has been fixed.
3886
3887 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3888
3889 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3890 GDB to dump core).
3891
3892 * New ``start'' command.
3893
3894 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3895
3896 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3897
3898 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3899 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3900 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3901
3902 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3903 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3904 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3905 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3906 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3907 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3908 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3909 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3910 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3911
3912 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
3913
3914 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3915 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3916 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3917 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3918 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3919
3920 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3921 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3922 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3923
3924 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3925
3926 * New native configurations
3927
3928 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
3929 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
3930 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3931 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
3932 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
3933 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
3934 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
3935
3936 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3937
3938 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3939 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3940 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3941 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3942 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3943 work, was also included.
3944
3945 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3946 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3947
3948 h8300-*-*
3949 mcore-*-*
3950 mn10300-*-*
3951 ns32k-*-*
3952 sh64-*-*
3953 v850-*-*
3954 xstormy16-*-*
3955
3956 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3957 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3958
3959 * REMOVED configurations and files
3960
3961 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3962 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3963 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3964 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3965 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3966 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3967 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3968 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3969 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3970 sonymips mips-sony-*
3971 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3972
3973 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3974
3975 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3976
3977 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3978 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3979 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3980 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3981 with GDB".
3982
3983 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3984
3985 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3986 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3987 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3988 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3989 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3990 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3991 are created.
3992
3993 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3994
3995 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
3996
3997 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3998 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3999 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4000
4001 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4002
4003 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4004 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4005
4006 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4007
4008 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4009 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4010 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4011
4012 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4013
4014 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4015 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4016
4017 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4018
4019 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4020 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4021 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4022
4023 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4024
4025 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4026 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4027 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4028
4029 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4030
4031 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4032
4033 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4034 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4035
4036 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4037
4038 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4039 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4040 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4041 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4042
4043 * Revised SPARC target
4044
4045 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4046 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4047 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4048 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4049 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4050
4051 * New C++ demangler
4052
4053 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4054 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4055 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4056 programs.
4057
4058 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4059
4060 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4061 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4062 encountered these.
4063
4064 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4065
4066 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4067 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4068 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4069 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4070 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4071 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4072 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4073 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4074 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4075
4076 * New native configurations
4077
4078 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4079 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4080 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4081 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4082 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4083
4084 * New debugging protocols
4085
4086 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4087
4088 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4089
4090 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4091 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4092 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4093
4094 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4095
4096 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4097 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4098 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4099 permanently REMOVED.
4100
4101 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4102 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4103 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4104 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4105 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4106 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4107 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4108 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4109 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4110 sonymips mips-sony-*
4111 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4112
4113 * REMOVED configurations and files
4114
4115 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4116 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4117 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4118 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4119 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4120 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4121 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4122 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4123 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4124 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4125 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4126 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4127 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4128 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4129 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4130 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4131 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4132
4133 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4134
4135 * Objective-C
4136
4137 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4138 integrated into GDB.
4139
4140 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4141
4142 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4143 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4144 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4145 backtraces.
4146
4147 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4148 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4149 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4150
4151 * Hosted file I/O.
4152
4153 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4154 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4155 remote protocol documentation for details.
4156
4157 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4158
4159 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4160 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4161 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4162 ppc32 on ppc64).
4163
4164 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4165
4166 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4167 per-thread variables.
4168
4169 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4170
4171 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4172 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4173
4174 * Separate debug info.
4175
4176 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4177 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4178 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4179 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4180 and optional debug files.
4181
4182 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4183
4184 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4185 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4186 debugger.
4187
4188 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4189 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4190
4191 * Java
4192
4193 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4194 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4195 considered "useable".
4196
4197 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4198
4199 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4200 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4201 kernel.
4202
4203 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4204
4205 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4206 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4207
4208 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4209
4210 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4211 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4212 command.
4213
4214 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4215
4216 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4217 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4218
4219 * Profiling support
4220
4221 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4222 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4223 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4224 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4225 data, for more informative profiling results.
4226
4227 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4228
4229 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4230 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4231 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4232
4233 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4234 removed.
4235
4236 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4237 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4238 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4239 in a subsequent -var-update.
4240
4241 * New native configurations.
4242
4243 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4244
4245 * Multi-arched targets.
4246
4247 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4248 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4249
4250 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4251
4252 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4253 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4254 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4255 permanently REMOVED.
4256
4257 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4258 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4259 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4260 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4261 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4262 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4263 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4264 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4265 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4266 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4267 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4268 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4269
4270 * REMOVED configurations and files
4271
4272 V850EA ISA
4273 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4274 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4275 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4276 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4277 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4278 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4279 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4280 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4281 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4282 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4283 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4284 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4285 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4286
4287 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4288
4289 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4290 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4291 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4292 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4293 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4294
4295 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4296
4297 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4298
4299 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4300 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4301 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4302 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4303 shared libs like mad''.
4304
4305 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4306
4307 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4308 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4309 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4310 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4311
4312 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4313
4314 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4315 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4316 they expand.
4317
4318 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4319 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4320
4321 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4322 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4323
4324 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4325 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4326 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4327 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4328
4329 * Multi-arched targets.
4330
4331 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4332 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4333 NEC V850 v850-*-*
4334 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4335 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4336 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4337
4338 * New targets.
4339
4340 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4341
4342
4343 * New native configurations
4344
4345 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4346 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4347 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4348 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4349
4350 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4351
4352 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4353 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4354 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4355 permanently REMOVED.
4356
4357 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4358 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4359 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4360 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4361 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4362 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4363 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4364 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4365 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4366 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4367 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4368 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4369 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4370
4371 * OBSOLETE languages
4372
4373 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4374
4375 * REMOVED configurations and files
4376
4377 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4378 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4379 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4380 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4381 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4382
4383 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4384
4385 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4386
4387 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4388 commands. The default is 1024.
4389
4390 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4391
4392 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4393
4394 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4395
4396 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4397 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4398 from a file into memory (restore).
4399
4400 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4401
4402 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4403 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4404 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4405
4406 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4407
4408 * New targets.
4409
4410 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
4411
4412 * Bug fixes
4413
4414 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4415 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4416 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4417
4418 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4419 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4420 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4421
4422 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
4423 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
4424 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
4425
4426 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
4427 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
4428 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
4429
4430 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
4431
4432 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
4433
4434 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
4435 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
4436 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
4437 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
4438 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
4439 (notably embedded) targets.
4440
4441 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
4442
4443 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
4444 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
4445 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
4446 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
4447
4448 * New command line option
4449
4450 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
4451
4452 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4453
4454 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
4455 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
4456 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
4457 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
4458 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4459 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4460 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4461 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4462 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4463 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4464
4465 * Changes in ARM configurations.
4466
4467 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
4468 configuration is fully multi-arch.
4469
4470 * New native configurations
4471
4472 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
4473 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
4474 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
4475 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
4476
4477 * New targets
4478
4479 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
4480
4481 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4482
4483 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4484 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4485 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4486 permanently REMOVED.
4487
4488 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4489 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4490 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4491 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4492 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4493
4494 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4495
4496 * REMOVED configurations and files
4497
4498 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4499 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4500 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4501 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4502 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4503 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4504 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4505 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4506 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4507 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4508 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4509 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4510 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
4511
4512 * Changes to command line processing
4513
4514 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4515 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4516
4517 * Changes to key bindings
4518
4519 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4520
4521 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4522
4523 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4524
4525 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4526 corrupted.
4527
4528 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4529
4530 Numerous documentation fixes.
4531
4532 Numerous testsuite fixes.
4533
4534 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
4535
4536 * New native configurations
4537
4538 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4539 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
4540 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
4541 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4542 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
4543 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
4544
4545 * New targets
4546
4547 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
4548 CRIS cris-axis
4549 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
4550
4551 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4552
4553 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
4554 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4555 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4556 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4557 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4558 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4559 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4560 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4561 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4562 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4563 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4564 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4565 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4566 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
4567
4568 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4569 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4570
4571 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4572 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4573 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4574 permanently REMOVED.
4575
4576 * REMOVED configurations and files
4577
4578 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4579 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4580 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4581 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4582 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
4583 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
4584
4585 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
4586
4587 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
4588 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4589 present.
4590
4591 * Other news:
4592
4593 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4594
4595 * The MI enabled by default.
4596
4597 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4598 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4599 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4600 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4601 which is now deprecated.
4602
4603 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4604
4605 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4606 main features are supported:
4607
4608 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4609
4610 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4611 extension;
4612
4613 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4614
4615 - a Pascal expression parser.
4616
4617 However, some important features are not yet supported.
4618
4619 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4620
4621 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4622
4623 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4624 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4625
4626 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4627
4628 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4629
4630 * Changes in completion.
4631
4632 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4633 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4634 users expect at the shell prompt.
4635
4636 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4637 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4638 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4639 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4640 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4641 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4642 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4643
4644 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4645
4646 * New platform-independent commands:
4647
4648 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4649 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4650 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4651
4652 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4653
4654 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4655 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4656 many threads as your system allows you to have.
4657
4658 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4659
4660 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4661 multi-threaded programs though.
4662
4663 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
4664
4665 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4666
4667 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4668 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4669 supported.)
4670
4671 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4672
4673 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4674 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4675 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4676 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4677 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4678 registers.
4679
4680 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4681 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4682 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4683
4684 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4685
4686 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4687 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4688
4689 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4690 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4691 IDT.
4692
4693 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4694 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4695 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4696 a given linear address.
4697
4698 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4699 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4700 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4701
4702 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4703
4704 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4705
4706 * Changes in documentation.
4707
4708 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4709 Documentation License.
4710
4711 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4712 manual.
4713
4714 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4715
4716 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4717 manual.
4718
4719 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4720 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4721 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4722
4723 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4724
4725 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4726 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4727 contents of this file.
4728
4729 * gdba.el deleted
4730
4731 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
4732
4733 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
4734
4735 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4736
4737 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4738 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4739 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4740 greater level of detail.
4741
4742 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4743
4744 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4745 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4746 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4747 written.
4748
4749 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4750
4751 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4752 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4753 machines ``out of the box''.
4754
4755 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4756 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4757 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4758 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4759 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4760
4761 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4762 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4763 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4764 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4765 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4766
4767 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4768 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4769 also works.
4770
4771 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4772 GDB.
4773
4774 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4775 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4776 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4777 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4778
4779 * New native configurations
4780
4781 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
4782 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4783
4784 * New targets
4785
4786 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
4787 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4788 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
4789 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4790
4791 * OBSOLETE configurations
4792
4793 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4794 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4795 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4796 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4797 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
4798
4799 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4800 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4801 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4802 be permanently REMOVED.
4803
4804 * Gould support removed
4805
4806 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4807
4808 * New features for SVR4
4809
4810 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4811 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4812 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4813
4814 * Many C++ enhancements
4815
4816 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4817 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4818
4819 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4820
4821 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4822 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4823 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4824 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4825
4826 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4827 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4828
4829 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
4830
4831 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4832 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4833 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4834
4835 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4836 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4837
4838 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4839
4840 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4841 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4842 include ``set remote P-packet''.
4843
4844 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4845
4846 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4847 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4848 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4849
4850 * ``apropos'' command added.
4851
4852 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4853 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4854 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4855
4856 * New MI interface
4857
4858 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4859 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
4860 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4861 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4862 enabled by configuring with:
4863
4864 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4865
4866 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4867
4868 * New native configurations
4869
4870 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4871 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
4872 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
4873
4874 * New targets
4875
4876 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4877 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4878 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4879
4880 * OBSOLETE configurations
4881
4882 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4883
4884 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4885 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4886 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4887 be permanently REMOVED.
4888
4889 * ANSI/ISO C
4890
4891 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4892 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4893 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4894 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4895 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4896 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4897 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4898 already.
4899
4900 * Readline 2.2
4901
4902 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4903
4904 * set extension-language
4905
4906 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4907 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4908 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4909 set extension-language .c c++
4910 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4911 and their associated languages.
4912
4913 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4914
4915 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4916 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4917 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4918
4919 set processor NAME
4920
4921 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4922 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4923
4924 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4925 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4926 403 IBM PowerPC 403
4927 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4928 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4929 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4930 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4931 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4932 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4933 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4934 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4935
4936 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4937 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4938 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4939 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4940
4941 * HP-UX support
4942
4943 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4944 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4945 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4946 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4947 for xdb and dbx commands.
4948
4949 * Catchpoints
4950
4951 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4952 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4953 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4954
4955 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4956 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4957 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4958
4959 * Debugging across forks
4960
4961 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4962 in the inferior.
4963
4964 * TUI
4965
4966 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4967 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4968 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4969
4970 * GDB remote protocol additions
4971
4972 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4973 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4974 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4975 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4976
4977 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4978 full 64-bit address. The command
4979
4980 set remoteaddresssize 32
4981
4982 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4983 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4984 will be discarded.
4985
4986 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4987 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4988
4989 maint packet heythere
4990
4991 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4992 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4993 time.
4994
4995 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4996 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4997 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4998
4999 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5000
5001 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5002 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5003 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5004
5005 * mask-address variable for Mips
5006
5007 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5008 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5009 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5010
5011 * Higher serial baud rates
5012
5013 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5014 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5015 to achieve all of these rates.)
5016
5017 * i960 simulator
5018
5019 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5020 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5021
5022
5023 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5024
5025 * New native configurations
5026
5027 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5028 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5029 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5030 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5031 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5032 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5033 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5034
5035 * New targets
5036
5037 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5038 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5039 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5040 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5041 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5042 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5043 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5044 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5045 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5046 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5047 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5048
5049 * New debugging protocols
5050
5051 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5052 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5053 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5054 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5055 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5056 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5057
5058 * DWARF 2
5059
5060 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5061 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5062 information.
5063
5064 * Java frontend
5065
5066 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5067 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5068
5069 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5070
5071 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5072 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5073 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5074
5075 * Live range splitting
5076
5077 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5078 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5079 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5080
5081 * Hurd support
5082
5083 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5084 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5085
5086 * ARM Thumb support
5087
5088 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5089 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5090 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5091 accordingly.
5092
5093 * MIPS16 support
5094
5095 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5096 instruction set.
5097
5098 * Overlay support
5099
5100 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5101 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5102 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5103 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5104 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5105 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5106
5107 * info symbol
5108
5109 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5110 the symbol at the specified address.
5111
5112 * Trace support
5113
5114 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5115 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5116 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5117 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5118 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5119
5120 * MIPS simulator
5121
5122 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5123 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5124 of most MIPS variants.
5125
5126 * Sparc simulator
5127
5128 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5129 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5130 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5131
5132 * set architecture
5133
5134 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5135 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5136 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5137 the possible architectures.
5138
5139 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5140
5141 * New native configurations
5142
5143 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5144 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5145 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5146 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5147 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5148 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5149
5150 * New targets
5151
5152 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5153 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5154 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5155 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5156 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5157 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
5158 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5159
5160 * PowerPC simulator
5161
5162 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5163 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5164 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5165 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5166 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5167
5168 * Solaris 2.5
5169
5170 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5171
5172 * Windows 95/NT native
5173
5174 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5175 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5176 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5177 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5178 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5179
5180 * dont-repeat command
5181
5182 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5183 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5184 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5185 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5186
5187 * Send break instead of ^C
5188
5189 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5190 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5191 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5192
5193 * Remote protocol timeout
5194
5195 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5196 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5197 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5198
5199 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5200
5201 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5202 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5203 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5204 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5205 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5206
5207 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5208 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5209 automatically on hpux10.
5210
5211 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5212
5213 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5214
5215 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5216
5217 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5218 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5219 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5220 every character. The default value is 1050.
5221
5222 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5223
5224 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5225 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5226 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5227 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5228 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5229 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5230
5231 * Speedups for remote debugging
5232
5233 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5234 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5235 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5236
5237 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5238
5239 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5240 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5241
5242 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5243
5244 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5245
5246 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5247 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5248
5249 * Remote targets use caching
5250
5251 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5252 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5253 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5254 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5255 off' turns the the data cache off.
5256
5257 * Remote targets may have threads
5258
5259 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5260 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5261 gdb/remote.c for details.
5262
5263 * NetROM support
5264
5265 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5266 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5267 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5268 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5269 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5270 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5271 sequence is something like
5272
5273 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5274 load <prog>
5275 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5276
5277 * Macintosh host
5278
5279 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5280 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5281 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5282 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5283 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5284 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5285 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5286 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5287
5288 * Autoconf
5289
5290 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5291 but does simplify configuration and building.
5292
5293 * hpux10
5294
5295 GDB now supports hpux10.
5296
5297 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5298
5299 * New native configurations
5300
5301 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5302 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5303 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5304 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5305
5306 * New targets
5307
5308 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5309 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5310 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5311 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5312 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5313
5314 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5315
5316 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5317 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5318 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5319 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5320 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5321
5322 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5323
5324 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5325 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5326 trivial example:
5327 define adder
5328 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5329
5330 To execute the command use:
5331 adder 1 2 3
5332
5333 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5334 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5335 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5336
5337 * New `if' and `while' commands
5338
5339 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5340 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5341 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5342 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5343 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5344 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5345 if the expression is zero.
5346
5347 * Fortran source language mode
5348
5349 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5350 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5351 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5352 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5353 Fortran compilers.
5354
5355 * Better HPUX support
5356
5357 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5358 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5359 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5360 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5361 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5362
5363 adb -w a.out
5364 __dld_flags?W 0x5
5365 control-d
5366
5367 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5368 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5369
5370 adb -w a.out
5371 __dld_flags?W 0x4
5372 control-d
5373
5374 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5375 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5376 external linkage.
5377
5378 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5379 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5380
5381 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5382
5383 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5384 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5385 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5386 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5387 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5388 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5389
5390 * New DOS host serial code
5391
5392 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5393 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5394 a PC's serial port.
5395
5396 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5397
5398 * New "complete" command
5399
5400 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5401 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5402
5403 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5404
5405 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5406 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5407
5408 * Breakpoint hit counts
5409
5410 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5411 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5412 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5413 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5414 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5415 that breakpoint.
5416
5417 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5418
5419 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5420 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5421 arrays actually contain only short strings.
5422
5423 * Shared library breakpoints
5424
5425 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
5426 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
5427
5428 * Hardware watchpoints
5429
5430 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
5431 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
5432
5433 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
5434
5435 * Annotations
5436
5437 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
5438 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
5439
5440 * Improved Irix 5 support
5441
5442 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
5443
5444 * Improved HPPA support
5445
5446 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
5447
5448 * New native configurations
5449
5450 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
5451 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5452 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
5453 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
5454
5455 * New targets
5456
5457 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5458 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5459 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
5460
5461 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5462
5463 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5464 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
5465
5466 * Fixes
5467
5468 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
5469 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
5470
5471 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
5472
5473 * Irix 5 is now supported
5474
5475 * HPPA support
5476
5477 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
5478 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
5479 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
5480 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
5481 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
5482
5483
5484 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
5485
5486 * User visible changes:
5487
5488 * Remote Debugging
5489
5490 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
5491 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
5492 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
5493 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
5494 debugging info for the mips target).
5495
5496 * DEC Alpha native support
5497
5498 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
5499 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
5500 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
5501 Alpha-specific notes.
5502
5503 * Preliminary thread implementation
5504
5505 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
5506
5507 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
5508
5509 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
5510 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
5511 for details).
5512
5513 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5514
5515 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5516 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5517 call methods, ...etc.
5518
5519 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5520
5521 * User visible changes:
5522
5523 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5524 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5525 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5526 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5527
5528 Filename completion now works.
5529
5530 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5531 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5532 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5533
5534 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5535 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5536 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5537 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5538 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5539
5540 * DEC alpha support
5541
5542 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5543 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5544
5545
5546 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5547
5548 * Testsuite
5549
5550 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5551 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5552 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5553
5554 * C++ demangling
5555
5556 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5557 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5558 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5559 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5560 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5561
5562 * Simulators
5563
5564 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5565 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5566 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5567
5568 * New targets supported
5569
5570 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5571 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5572 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5573 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5574 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5575
5576 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5577 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5578 GO32 memory extender.
5579
5580 * New remote protocols
5581
5582 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5583
5584 * New source languages supported
5585
5586 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5587 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5588 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5589
5590
5591 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5592
5593 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5594
5595 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5596 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5597 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5598 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5599 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5600 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5601
5602 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5603
5604 * Faster and better demangling
5605
5606 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5607 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5608 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5609 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5610 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5611 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5612 symbol lookups.
5613
5614 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5615 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5616 compiler does not actually implement.
5617
5618 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5619
5620 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5621 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5622 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5623 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5624 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5625 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5626 fix.
5627
5628 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5629 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5630
5631 * Improved configure script
5632
5633 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5634 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5635 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5636 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5637
5638 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5639 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5640 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5641 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5642 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5643 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5644
5645 * Documentation improvements
5646
5647 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5648 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5649 before submitting changes.
5650
5651 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5652 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5653 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5654 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5655 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5656
5657 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5658 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5659 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5660 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5661 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5662 around this problem.
5663
5664 * New features
5665
5666 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5667 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5668 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5669 the target program.
5670
5671 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5672 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5673
5674 * New native hosts supported
5675
5676 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5677 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5678
5679 * New targets supported
5680
5681 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5682
5683 * New file formats supported
5684
5685 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5686 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5687
5688 * Major bug fixes
5689
5690 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5691
5692 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5693 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5694
5695 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5696 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5697 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5698
5699 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5700 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5701
5702 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5703 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5704 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5705 libraries.
5706
5707 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5708 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5709 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5710 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5711 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5712
5713 * Internal improvements
5714
5715 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5716 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5717
5718 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5719 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5720 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5721 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5722 shared code that handles any of them.
5723
5724 * New command line options
5725
5726 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5727
5728 * Mmalloc licensing
5729
5730 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5731 General Public License.
5732
5733 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5734
5735 * Host/native/target split
5736
5737 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5738 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5739 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5740 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5741 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5742
5743 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5744 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5745 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5746 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5747 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5748 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5749 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5750
5751 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5752 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5753 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5754
5755 * New hosts supported
5756
5757 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5758 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5759 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5760
5761 * New targets supported
5762
5763 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5764 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5765
5766 * New native hosts supported
5767
5768 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5769 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5770 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5771
5772 * New file formats supported
5773
5774 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5775 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5776 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5777
5778 * New commands
5779
5780 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5781 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5782 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5783
5784 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5785
5786 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5787 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5788 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5789 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5790
5791 * C++ improvements
5792
5793 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5794 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5795 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5796
5797 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5798
5799 * Major bug fixes
5800
5801 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5802 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5803 by the compiler.
5804
5805 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5806 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5807
5808 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5809 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5810 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5811 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5812 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5813 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5814
5815 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5816 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5817 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5818 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5819
5820 * AMD 29k support
5821
5822 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5823 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5824 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5825 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5826 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5827
5828 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5829 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5830 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5831 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5832
5833 * Remote interfaces
5834
5835 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5836 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5837 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5838 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5839 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5840 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5841 each instruction being stepped through.
5842
5843 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5844 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5845
5846 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5847 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5848 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5849 processor with a serial port.
5850
5851 * Configuration
5852
5853 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5854 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5855 supported, and what files each one uses.
5856
5857 * Library changes
5858
5859 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5860 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5861 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5862 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5863
5864 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5865 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5866 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5867 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5868
5869 * Documentation
5870
5871 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5872 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5873 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5874 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5875 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5876 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5877
5878 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5879
5880
5881 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5882
5883 * Better support for C++ function names
5884
5885 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5886 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5887 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5888 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5889 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5890
5891 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5892 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5893 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5894 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5895 for the list of formats.
5896
5897 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5898
5899 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5900 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5901 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5902 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5903 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5904 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5905 this problem.)
5906
5907 * New 'maintenance' command
5908
5909 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5910 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5911 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5912
5913 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5914 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5915 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5916 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5917 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5918 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5919
5920 The following commands are new:
5921
5922 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5923 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5924 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5925
5926 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5927
5928 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5929 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5930 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5931 read after argv processing.
5932
5933 * New hosts supported
5934
5935 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5936
5937 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
5938
5939 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5940 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5941 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5942 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5943 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5944 It costs extra.
5945
5946 * New targets supported
5947
5948 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5949
5950 * More smarts about finding #include files
5951
5952 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5953 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5954 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5955 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5956 the one that contains your sources.
5957
5958 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5959 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5960 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5961
5962 * Interesting infernals change
5963
5964 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5965 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5966 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5967 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5968
5969 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5970
5971 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5972 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5973 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5974
5975 See the ChangeLog for details.
5976
5977 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5978
5979 * New machines supported (host and target)
5980
5981 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5982
5983 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5984
5985 * New malloc package
5986
5987 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5988 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5989 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5990 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5991 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5992 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5993
5994 * info proc
5995
5996 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5997 'help info proc' for details.
5998
5999 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6000
6001 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6002 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6003 possible.
6004
6005 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6006
6007 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6008 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6009 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6010 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6011 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6012 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6013
6014 * Cross byte order fixes
6015
6016 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6017 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6018
6019 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6020
6021 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6022 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6023 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6024 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6025 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6026 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6027 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6028 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6029 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6030 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6031
6032 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6033 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6034 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6035 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6036
6037 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6038 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6039 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6040 use is:
6041
6042 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6043
6044 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6045 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6046 shared across multiple host platforms.
6047
6048 * longjmp() handling
6049
6050 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6051 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6052 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6053 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6054
6055 * Solaris 2.0
6056
6057 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6058 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6059 reading symbols.
6060
6061 * Bug fixes
6062
6063 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6064 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6065 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6066
6067 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6068
6069 * New machines supported (host and target)
6070
6071 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6072 (except core files)
6073 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6074 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6075
6076 * New machines supported (target)
6077
6078 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6079
6080 * C++ support
6081
6082 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6083 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6084 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6085
6086 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6087 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6088 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6089 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6090 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6091 released.
6092
6093 * New features for SVR4
6094
6095 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6096 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6097 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6098
6099 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6100 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6101 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6102
6103 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6104 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6105
6106 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6107
6108 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6109 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6110 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6111 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6112 same code linked statically.
6113
6114 * New Getopt
6115
6116 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6117 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6118 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6119 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6120 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6121 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6122
6123 * Bugs fixed
6124
6125 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6126 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6127 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6128
6129
6130 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6131
6132 * New machines supported (host and target)
6133
6134 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6135 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6136 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6137
6138 * Almost SCO Unix support
6139
6140 We had hoped to support:
6141 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6142 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6143 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6144 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6145
6146 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6147
6148 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6149 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6150 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6151 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6152 reqired (if any).
6153
6154 * New Readline
6155
6156 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6157 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6158 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6159
6160 * Bugs fixed
6161
6162 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6163 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6164 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6165
6166 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6167
6168 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6169 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6170 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6171
6172 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6173 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6174 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6175 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6176 version 2.
6177
6178 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6179 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6180 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6181 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6182 situation somewhat.
6183
6184 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6185 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6186 methods.
6187
6188 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6189 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6190 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6191
6192
6193 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6194
6195 * Improved configuration
6196
6197 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6198 Porting BFD is simpler.
6199
6200 * Stepping improved
6201
6202 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6203 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6204 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6205 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6206
6207 * Bug fixing
6208
6209 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6210
6211 * New host supported (not target)
6212
6213 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6214
6215
6216 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6217
6218 * Multiple source language support
6219
6220 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6221 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6222 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6223 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6224 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6225 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6226
6227 * GDB and Modula-2
6228
6229 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6230 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6231 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6232 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6233
6234 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6235 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6236 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6237
6238 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6239 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6240
6241 * set write on/off
6242
6243 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6244 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6245 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6246 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6247 effect immediately.
6248
6249 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6250
6251 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6252 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6253 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6254 examining core files.
6255
6256 * set listsize
6257
6258 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6259 The default is 10.
6260
6261 * New machines supported (host and target)
6262
6263 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6264 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6265 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6266
6267 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6268
6269 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6270
6271 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6272
6273 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6274 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6275 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6276
6277 * New remote interfaces
6278
6279 AMD 29000 Adapt
6280 AMD 29000 Minimon
6281
6282
6283 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6284
6285 * New Facilities
6286
6287 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6288
6289 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6290 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6291 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6292 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6293 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6294 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6295 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6296 stub on the target system.
6297
6298 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6299
6300 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6301 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6302 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6303
6304 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6305 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6306
6307
6308 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6309
6310 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6311 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6312
6313 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6314 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6315 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6316
6317 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6318 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6319 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6320 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6321
6322 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6323 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6324 it is already running. Default is ON.
6325
6326 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6327 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6328 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6329 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6330 Default is ON.
6331
6332 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6333 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6334 or the value of the environment variable
6335 GDBHISTFILE.
6336
6337 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6338 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6339 HISTSIZE.
6340
6341 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6342 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6343 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6344
6345 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6346 history expansion will be performed on
6347 command line input. The default is OFF.
6348
6349 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6350 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6351 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6352
6353 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6354 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6355 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6356 variable TERM.
6357
6358 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6359 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6360 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6361 variable TERM.
6362
6363 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6364 ``set width'' instead.
6365
6366 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6367 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6368 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6369 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6370
6371 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6372 is OFF.
6373
6374 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6375 "raw" form if off.
6376
6377 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6378 like instructions.
6379
6380 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6381
6382
6383 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6384
6385 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6386 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6387 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6388 window.
6389
6390
6391 * Support for Shared Libraries
6392
6393 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6394 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6395 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6396 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6397 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6398 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6399 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6400 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6401
6402 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6403 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6404 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6405
6406 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6407
6408
6409 * Watchpoints
6410
6411 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6412 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6413 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6414 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6415 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6416 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6417
6418 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6419
6420 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6421
6422 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6423 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6424 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6425
6426
6427 * C++ multiple inheritance
6428
6429 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
6430 for C++ programs.
6431
6432 * C++ exception handling
6433
6434 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
6435 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
6436 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
6437 handler's context).
6438
6439 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
6440 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
6441 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
6442
6443 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
6444 current stack frame.
6445
6446
6447 * Minor command changes
6448
6449 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
6450 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
6451 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
6452
6453 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
6454 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
6455 frames without printing.
6456
6457 * New directory command
6458
6459 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6460 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6461 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6462 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6463 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6464
6465 * Configuring GDB for compilation
6466
6467 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
6468 for more details.
6469
6470 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
6471 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
6472 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
6473 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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