1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * Process record and replay
8 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
9 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
10 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
13 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
14 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
15 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
18 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
19 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
22 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
23 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
24 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
25 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
26 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
27 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
28 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
29 the installation instructions for more information.
31 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
32 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
33 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
34 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
36 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
37 now complete on file names.
39 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
40 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
41 For instance, consider:
43 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
44 # struct example variable;
47 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
48 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
50 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
51 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
53 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
54 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
57 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
59 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
64 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
67 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
68 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
69 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
72 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
73 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
76 Obtains additional operating system information
80 Read or write additional signal information.
82 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
84 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
85 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
86 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
88 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
91 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
92 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
94 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
95 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
96 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
98 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
99 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
101 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
103 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
105 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
106 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
108 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
109 list of section offsets.
111 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
112 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
113 have also been fixed.
115 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
116 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
117 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
119 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
122 template<typename T> class C { };
125 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
127 ptype C<char const *>
129 ptype C<const char *>
132 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
134 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
135 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
137 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
138 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
139 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
141 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
142 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
144 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
149 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
150 available is determined at configure time.
152 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
154 * Ada tasking support
156 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
160 Print the list of Ada tasks.
162 Print detailed information about task number N.
164 Print the task number of the current task.
166 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
168 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
169 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
171 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
173 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
175 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
177 maint set python print-stack
178 maint show python print-stack
179 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
182 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
187 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
191 Show operating system information about processes.
195 set sh calling-convention
196 show sh calling-convention
197 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
199 set print symbol-loading
200 show print symbol-loading
201 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
205 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
207 set disassemble-next-line
208 show disassemble-next-line
209 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
212 set remote noack-packet
213 show remote noack-packet
214 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
215 under "New remote packets."
217 set remote query-attached-packet
218 show remote query-attached-packet
219 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
221 set remote read-siginfo-object
222 show remote read-siginfo-object
223 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
226 set remote write-siginfo-object
227 show remote write-siginfo-object
228 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
231 set displaced-stepping
232 show displaced-stepping
233 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
234 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
235 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
239 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
241 maint set internal-error
242 maint show internal-error
243 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
245 maint set internal-warning
246 maint show internal-warning
247 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
252 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
254 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
255 show multiple-symbols
256 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
257 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
258 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
260 set breakpoint always-inserted
261 show breakpoint always-inserted
262 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
263 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
264 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
266 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
267 show arm fallback-mode
268 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
270 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
271 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
272 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
273 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
275 set disable-randomization
276 show disable-randomization
277 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
278 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
279 multiple debugging sessions.
283 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
288 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
289 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
290 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
291 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
293 set target-wide-charset
294 show target-wide-charset
295 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
296 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
298 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
300 set tcp connect-timeout
301 show tcp connect-timeout
302 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
303 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
304 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
306 set libthread-db-search-path
307 show libthread-db-search-path
308 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
311 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
312 show schedule-multiple
313 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
316 * New native configurations
318 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
320 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
324 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
325 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
326 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
328 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
329 (mingw32ce) debugging.
335 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
337 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
339 * New native configurations
341 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
342 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
346 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
347 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
349 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
351 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
352 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
353 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
354 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
356 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
357 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
359 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
362 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
363 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
364 and in inlined functions.
366 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
367 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
368 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
370 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
372 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
373 registers on PowerPC targets.
375 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
376 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
378 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
379 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
381 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
382 extended-remote mode.
384 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
385 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
386 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
387 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
389 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
390 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
391 target architectures.
393 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
394 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
395 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
396 stored in two consecutive float registers.
398 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
401 * Improved support for debugging Ada
402 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
404 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
405 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
406 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
407 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
409 - Improved command completion in Ada
412 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
417 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
418 show print frame-arguments
419 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
420 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
425 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
432 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
441 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
444 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
448 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
450 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
452 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
453 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
454 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
456 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
457 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
458 -Bsymbolic linker option.
460 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
461 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
464 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
465 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
467 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
468 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
470 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
472 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
473 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
474 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
476 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
477 automatically displayed as character or string data.
479 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
480 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
483 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
484 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
485 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
487 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
490 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
491 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
492 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
494 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
496 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
498 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
499 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
500 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
502 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
503 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
505 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
506 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
507 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
508 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
509 Windows and SymbianOS).
511 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
512 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
514 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
515 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
521 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
522 when debugging using remote targets.
524 set mem inaccessible-by-default
525 show mem inaccessible-by-default
526 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
527 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
528 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
529 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
530 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
532 set breakpoint auto-hw
533 show breakpoint auto-hw
534 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
535 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
536 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
537 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
538 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
539 including "next" and "finish".
542 catch exception unhandled
543 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
546 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
550 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
551 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
552 an alias to "set sysroot".
555 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
556 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
559 * New native configurations
561 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
566 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
567 not query the target for its built-in description.
571 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
572 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
573 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
578 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
579 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
582 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
587 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
588 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
590 qXfer:libraries:read:
591 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
592 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
593 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
594 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
598 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
607 i[34567]86-*-netware*
608 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
609 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
611 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
614 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
615 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
624 * Other removed features
631 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
638 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
643 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
644 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
649 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
650 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
652 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
654 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
655 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
656 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
657 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
661 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
662 in debugging information.
666 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
667 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
669 set mips stack-arg-size
670 set mips saved-gpreg-size
672 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
674 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
679 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
681 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
682 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
683 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
685 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
686 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
689 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
690 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
692 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
693 stub provides the required support.
695 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
696 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
701 unset substitute-path
703 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
704 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
705 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
706 between compilation and debugging.
710 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
711 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
712 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
716 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
718 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
719 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
721 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
726 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
727 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
728 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
729 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
733 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
734 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
736 qXfer:memory-map:read:
737 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
738 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
743 Erase and program a flash memory device.
745 * Removed remote packets
748 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
749 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
751 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
755 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
757 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
761 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
762 only if it doesn't already have a value.
764 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
766 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
768 restart <n> Return the program state to a
769 previously saved state.
771 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
773 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
775 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
776 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
778 info forks List forks of the user program that
779 are available to be debugged.
781 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
782 forks of the user program that are
783 available to be debugged.
785 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
786 that are available to be debugged (and
787 kill the forked process).
789 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
790 that are available to be debugged (and
791 allow the process to continue).
795 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
797 * Improved Windows host support
799 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
800 native console support, and remote communications using either
801 network sockets or serial ports.
803 * Improved Modula-2 language support
805 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
806 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
807 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
808 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
809 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
810 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
814 The ARM rdi-share module.
816 The Netware NLM debug server.
818 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
820 * New native configurations
822 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
823 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
827 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
829 * New command line options
831 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
832 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
833 the child (debugged) program exited with.
834 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
835 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
836 specified multiple times and in conjunction
837 with the --command (-x) option.
839 * Deprecated commands removed
841 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
845 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
846 othernames set arm disassembler
847 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
848 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
849 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
852 * New BSD user-level threads support
854 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
855 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
858 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
859 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
860 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
862 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
863 are not yet supported.
865 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
866 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
868 * REMOVED configurations and files
870 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
871 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
872 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
874 * New "set print array-indexes" command
876 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
877 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
880 * VAX floating point support
882 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
884 * User-defined command support
886 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
887 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
888 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
890 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
892 * New command line option
894 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
897 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
899 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
900 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
901 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
902 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
903 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
905 * Internationalization
907 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
908 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
909 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
913 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
914 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
915 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
917 * New native configurations
919 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
923 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
924 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
926 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
928 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
929 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
930 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
933 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
934 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
935 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
947 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
948 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
950 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
952 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
953 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
954 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
964 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
966 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
968 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
969 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
972 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
974 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
975 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
976 IRIX long double values).
980 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
981 command. This problem has been fixed.
983 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
985 * Fix for ``many threads''
987 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
988 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
991 ptrace: No such process.
992 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
994 This problem has been fixed.
996 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
998 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1001 * New ``start'' command.
1003 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1005 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1007 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1008 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1009 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1011 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1012 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1013 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1014 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1015 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1016 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1017 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1018 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1019 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1021 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1023 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1024 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1025 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1026 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1027 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1029 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1030 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1031 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1033 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1035 * New native configurations
1037 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1038 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1039 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1040 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1041 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1042 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1043 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1045 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1047 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1048 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1049 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1050 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1051 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1052 work, was also included.
1054 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1055 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1065 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1066 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1068 * REMOVED configurations and files
1070 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1071 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1072 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1073 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1074 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1075 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1076 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1077 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1078 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1079 sonymips mips-sony-*
1080 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1082 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1084 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1086 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1087 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1088 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1089 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1092 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1094 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1095 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1096 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1097 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1098 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1099 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1102 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1104 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1106 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1107 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1108 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1110 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1112 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1113 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1115 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1117 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1118 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1119 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1121 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1123 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1124 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1126 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1128 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1129 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1130 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1132 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1134 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1135 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1136 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1138 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1140 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1142 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1143 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1145 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1147 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1148 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1149 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1150 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1152 * Revised SPARC target
1154 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1155 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1156 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1157 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1158 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1162 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1163 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1164 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1167 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1169 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1170 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1173 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1175 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1176 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1177 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1178 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1179 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1180 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1181 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1182 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1183 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1185 * New native configurations
1187 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1188 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1189 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1190 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1191 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1193 * New debugging protocols
1195 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1197 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1199 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1200 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1201 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1203 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1205 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1206 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1207 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1208 permanently REMOVED.
1210 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1211 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1212 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1213 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1214 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1215 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1216 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1217 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1218 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1219 sonymips mips-sony-*
1220 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1222 * REMOVED configurations and files
1224 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1225 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1226 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1227 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1228 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1229 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1230 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1231 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1232 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1233 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1234 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1235 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1236 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1237 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1238 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1239 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1240 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1242 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1246 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1247 integrated into GDB.
1249 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1251 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1252 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1253 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1256 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1257 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1258 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1262 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1263 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1264 remote protocol documentation for details.
1266 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1268 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1269 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1270 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1273 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1275 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1276 per-thread variables.
1278 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1280 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1281 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1283 * Separate debug info.
1285 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1286 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1287 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1288 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1289 and optional debug files.
1291 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1293 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1294 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1297 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1298 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1302 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1303 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1304 considered "useable".
1306 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1308 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1309 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1312 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1314 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1315 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1317 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1319 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1320 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1323 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1325 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1326 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1330 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1331 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1332 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1333 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1334 data, for more informative profiling results.
1336 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1338 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1339 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1340 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1342 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1345 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1346 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1347 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1348 in a subsequent -var-update.
1350 * New native configurations.
1352 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1354 * Multi-arched targets.
1356 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1357 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1359 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1361 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1362 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1363 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1364 permanently REMOVED.
1366 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1367 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1368 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1369 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1370 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1371 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1372 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1373 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1374 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1375 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1376 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1377 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1379 * REMOVED configurations and files
1382 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1383 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1384 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1385 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1386 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1387 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1389 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1390 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1391 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1392 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1393 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1394 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1396 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1398 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1399 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1400 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1401 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1402 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1404 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1406 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1408 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1409 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1410 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1411 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1412 shared libs like mad''.
1414 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1416 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1417 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1418 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1419 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1421 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1423 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1424 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1427 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1428 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1430 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1431 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1433 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1434 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1435 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1436 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1438 * Multi-arched targets.
1440 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1441 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1443 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1444 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1445 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1449 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1452 * New native configurations
1454 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1455 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1456 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1457 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1459 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1461 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1462 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1463 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1464 permanently REMOVED.
1466 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1467 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1468 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1469 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1470 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1471 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1472 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1473 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1474 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1475 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1477 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1478 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1480 * OBSOLETE languages
1482 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1484 * REMOVED configurations and files
1486 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1487 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1488 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1489 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1490 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1492 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1494 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1496 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1497 commands. The default is 1024.
1499 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1501 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1503 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1505 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1506 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1507 from a file into memory (restore).
1509 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1511 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1512 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1513 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1515 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1523 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1524 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1525 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1527 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1528 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1529 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1531 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1532 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1533 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1535 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1536 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1537 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1539 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1541 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1543 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1544 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1545 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1546 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1547 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1548 (notably embedded) targets.
1550 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1552 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1553 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1554 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1555 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1557 * New command line option
1559 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1561 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1563 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1564 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1565 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1566 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1567 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1568 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1569 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1570 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1571 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1572 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1574 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1576 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1577 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1579 * New native configurations
1581 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1582 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1583 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1584 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1588 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1590 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1592 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1593 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1594 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1595 permanently REMOVED.
1597 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1598 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1599 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1600 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1601 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1603 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1605 * REMOVED configurations and files
1607 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1609 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1610 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1611 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1612 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1613 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1614 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1615 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1616 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1617 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1618 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1619 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1621 * Changes to command line processing
1623 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1624 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1626 * Changes to key bindings
1628 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1630 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1632 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1634 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1637 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1639 Numerous documentation fixes.
1641 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1643 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1645 * New native configurations
1647 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1648 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1649 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1650 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1651 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1652 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1656 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1658 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1660 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1662 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1663 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1664 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1665 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1666 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1668 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1669 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1670 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1671 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1672 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1673 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1674 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1675 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1677 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1678 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1680 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1681 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1682 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1683 permanently REMOVED.
1685 * REMOVED configurations and files
1687 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1688 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1690 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1694 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1696 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1697 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1702 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1704 * The MI enabled by default.
1706 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1707 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1708 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1709 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1710 which is now deprecated.
1712 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1714 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1715 main features are supported:
1717 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1719 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1722 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1724 - a Pascal expression parser.
1726 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1728 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1730 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1732 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1733 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1735 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1737 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1739 * Changes in completion.
1741 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1742 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1743 users expect at the shell prompt.
1745 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1746 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1747 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1748 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1749 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1750 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1751 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1753 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1755 * New platform-independent commands:
1757 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1758 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1759 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1761 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1763 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1764 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1765 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1767 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1769 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1770 multi-threaded programs though.
1772 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1774 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1776 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1777 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1780 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1782 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1783 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1784 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1785 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1786 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1789 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1790 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1791 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1793 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1795 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1796 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1798 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1799 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1802 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1803 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1804 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1805 a given linear address.
1807 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1808 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1809 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1811 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1813 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1815 * Changes in documentation.
1817 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1818 Documentation License.
1820 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1823 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1825 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1828 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1829 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1830 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1832 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1834 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1835 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1836 contents of this file.
1840 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1842 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1844 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1846 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1847 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1848 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1849 greater level of detail.
1851 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1853 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1854 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1855 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1858 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1860 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1861 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1862 machines ``out of the box''.
1864 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1865 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1866 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1867 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1868 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1870 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1871 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1872 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1873 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1874 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1876 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1877 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1880 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1883 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1884 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1885 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1886 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1888 * New native configurations
1890 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1891 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1895 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1896 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1897 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1898 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1900 * OBSOLETE configurations
1902 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1903 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1905 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1908 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1909 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1910 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1911 be permanently REMOVED.
1913 * Gould support removed
1915 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1917 * New features for SVR4
1919 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1920 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1921 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1923 * Many C++ enhancements
1925 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1926 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1928 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1930 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1931 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1932 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1933 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1935 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1936 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1938 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1940 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1941 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1942 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1944 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1945 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1947 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1949 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1950 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1951 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1953 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1955 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1956 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1957 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1959 * ``apropos'' command added.
1961 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1962 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1963 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1967 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1968 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1969 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1970 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1971 enabled by configuring with:
1973 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1975 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1977 * New native configurations
1979 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1980 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1981 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1985 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1986 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1987 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1989 * OBSOLETE configurations
1991 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1993 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1994 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1995 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1996 be permanently REMOVED.
2000 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2001 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2002 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2003 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2004 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2005 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2006 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2011 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2013 * set extension-language
2015 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2016 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2017 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2018 set extension-language .c c++
2019 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2020 and their associated languages.
2022 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2024 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2025 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2026 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2030 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2031 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2033 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2034 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2036 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2037 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2038 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2039 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2040 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2041 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2042 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2043 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2045 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2046 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2047 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2048 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2052 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2053 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2054 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2055 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2056 for xdb and dbx commands.
2060 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2061 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2062 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2064 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2065 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2066 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2068 * Debugging across forks
2070 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2075 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2076 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2077 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2079 * GDB remote protocol additions
2081 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2082 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2083 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2084 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2086 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2087 full 64-bit address. The command
2089 set remoteaddresssize 32
2091 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2092 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2095 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2096 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2098 maint packet heythere
2100 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2101 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2104 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2105 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2106 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2108 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2110 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2111 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2112 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2114 * mask-address variable for Mips
2116 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2117 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2118 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2120 * Higher serial baud rates
2122 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2123 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2124 to achieve all of these rates.)
2128 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2129 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2132 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2134 * New native configurations
2136 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2137 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2138 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2139 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2140 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2141 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2142 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2146 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2147 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2148 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2149 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2150 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2151 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2152 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2153 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2154 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2155 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2156 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2158 * New debugging protocols
2160 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2161 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2162 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2163 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2164 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2165 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2169 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2170 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2175 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2176 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2178 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2180 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2181 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2182 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2184 * Live range splitting
2186 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2187 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2188 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2192 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2193 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2197 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2198 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2199 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2204 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2209 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2210 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2211 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2212 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2213 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2214 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2218 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2219 the symbol at the specified address.
2223 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2224 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2225 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2226 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2227 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2231 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2232 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2233 of most MIPS variants.
2237 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2238 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2239 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2243 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2244 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2245 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2246 the possible architectures.
2248 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2250 * New native configurations
2252 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2253 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2254 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2255 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2256 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2257 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2261 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2262 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2263 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2264 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2265 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2267 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2271 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2272 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2273 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2274 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2275 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2279 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2281 * Windows 95/NT native
2283 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2284 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2285 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2286 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2287 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2289 * dont-repeat command
2291 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2292 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2293 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2294 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2296 * Send break instead of ^C
2298 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2299 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2300 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2302 * Remote protocol timeout
2304 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2305 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2306 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2308 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2310 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2311 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2312 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2313 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2314 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2316 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2317 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2318 automatically on hpux10.
2320 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2322 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2324 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2326 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2327 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2328 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2329 every character. The default value is 1050.
2331 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2333 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2334 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2335 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2336 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2337 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2338 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2340 * Speedups for remote debugging
2342 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2343 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2344 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2346 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2348 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2349 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2351 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2353 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2355 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2356 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2358 * Remote targets use caching
2360 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2361 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2362 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2363 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2364 off' turns the the data cache off.
2366 * Remote targets may have threads
2368 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2369 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2370 gdb/remote.c for details.
2374 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2375 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2376 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2377 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2378 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2379 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2380 sequence is something like
2382 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2384 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2388 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2389 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2390 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2391 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2392 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2393 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2394 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2395 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2399 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2400 but does simplify configuration and building.
2404 GDB now supports hpux10.
2406 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2408 * New native configurations
2410 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2411 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2412 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2413 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2417 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2418 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2419 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2420 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2423 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2425 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2426 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2427 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2428 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2429 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2431 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2433 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2434 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2437 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2439 To execute the command use:
2442 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2443 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2444 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2446 * New `if' and `while' commands
2448 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2449 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2450 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2451 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2452 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2453 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2454 if the expression is zero.
2456 * Fortran source language mode
2458 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2459 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2460 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2461 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2464 * Better HPUX support
2466 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2467 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2468 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2469 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2470 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2476 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2477 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2483 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2484 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2487 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2488 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2490 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2492 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2493 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2494 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2495 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2496 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2497 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2499 * New DOS host serial code
2501 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2502 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2505 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2507 * New "complete" command
2509 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2510 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2512 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2514 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2515 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2517 * Breakpoint hit counts
2519 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2520 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2521 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2522 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2523 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2526 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2528 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2529 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2530 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2532 * Shared library breakpoints
2534 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2535 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2537 * Hardware watchpoints
2539 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2540 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2542 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2546 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2547 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2549 * Improved Irix 5 support
2551 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2553 * Improved HPPA support
2555 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2557 * New native configurations
2559 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2560 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2561 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2562 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2566 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2567 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2570 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2572 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2573 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2577 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2578 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2580 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2582 * Irix 5 is now supported
2586 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2587 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2588 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2589 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2590 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2593 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2595 * User visible changes:
2599 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2600 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2601 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2602 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2603 debugging info for the mips target).
2605 * DEC Alpha native support
2607 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2608 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2609 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2610 Alpha-specific notes.
2612 * Preliminary thread implementation
2614 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2616 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2618 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2619 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2622 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2624 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2625 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2626 call methods, ...etc.
2628 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2630 * User visible changes:
2632 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2633 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2634 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2635 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2637 Filename completion now works.
2639 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2640 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2641 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2643 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2644 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2645 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2646 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2647 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2651 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2652 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2655 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2659 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2660 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2661 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2665 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2666 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2667 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2668 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2669 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2673 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2674 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2675 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2677 * New targets supported
2679 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2680 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2681 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2682 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2683 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2685 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2686 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2687 GO32 memory extender.
2689 * New remote protocols
2691 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2693 * New source languages supported
2695 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2696 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2697 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2700 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2702 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2704 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2705 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2706 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2707 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2708 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2709 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2711 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2713 * Faster and better demangling
2715 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2716 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2717 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2718 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2719 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2720 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2723 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2724 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2725 compiler does not actually implement.
2727 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2729 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2730 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2731 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2732 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2733 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2734 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2737 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2738 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2740 * Improved configure script
2742 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2743 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2744 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2745 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2747 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2748 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2749 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2750 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2751 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2752 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2754 * Documentation improvements
2756 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2757 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2758 before submitting changes.
2760 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2761 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2762 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2763 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2764 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2766 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2767 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2768 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2769 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2770 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2771 around this problem.
2775 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2776 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2777 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2780 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2781 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2783 * New native hosts supported
2785 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2786 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2788 * New targets supported
2790 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2792 * New file formats supported
2794 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2795 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2799 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2801 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2802 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2804 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2805 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2806 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2808 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2809 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2811 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2812 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2813 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2816 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2817 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2818 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2819 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2820 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2822 * Internal improvements
2824 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2825 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2827 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2828 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2829 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2830 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2831 shared code that handles any of them.
2833 * New command line options
2835 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2839 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2840 General Public License.
2842 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2844 * Host/native/target split
2846 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2847 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2848 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2849 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2850 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2852 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2853 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2854 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2855 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2856 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2857 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2858 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2860 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2861 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2862 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2864 * New hosts supported
2866 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2867 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2868 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2870 * New targets supported
2872 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2873 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2875 * New native hosts supported
2877 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2878 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2879 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2881 * New file formats supported
2883 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2884 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2885 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2889 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2890 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2891 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2893 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2895 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2896 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2897 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2898 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2902 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2903 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2904 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2906 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2910 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2911 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2914 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2915 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2917 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2918 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2919 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2920 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2921 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2922 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2924 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2925 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2926 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2927 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2931 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2932 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2933 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2934 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2935 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2937 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2938 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2939 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2940 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2944 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2945 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2946 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2947 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2948 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2949 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2950 each instruction being stepped through.
2952 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2953 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2955 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2956 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2957 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2958 processor with a serial port.
2962 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2963 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2964 supported, and what files each one uses.
2968 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2969 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2970 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2971 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2973 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2974 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2975 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2976 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2980 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2981 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2982 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2983 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2984 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2985 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2987 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2990 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2992 * Better support for C++ function names
2994 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2995 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2996 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2997 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2998 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3000 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3001 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3002 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3003 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3004 for the list of formats.
3006 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3008 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3009 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3010 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3011 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3012 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3013 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3016 * New 'maintenance' command
3018 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3019 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3020 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3022 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3023 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3024 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3025 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3026 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3027 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3029 The following commands are new:
3031 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3032 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3033 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3035 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3037 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3038 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3039 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3040 read after argv processing.
3042 * New hosts supported
3044 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3046 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3048 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3049 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3050 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3051 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3052 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3055 * New targets supported
3057 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3059 * More smarts about finding #include files
3061 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3062 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3063 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3064 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3065 the one that contains your sources.
3067 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3068 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3069 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3071 * Interesting infernals change
3073 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3074 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3075 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3076 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3078 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3080 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3081 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3082 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3084 See the ChangeLog for details.
3086 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3088 * New machines supported (host and target)
3090 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3092 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3094 * New malloc package
3096 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3097 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3098 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3099 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3100 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3101 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3105 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3106 'help info proc' for details.
3108 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3110 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3111 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3114 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3116 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3117 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3118 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3119 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3120 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3121 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3123 * Cross byte order fixes
3125 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3126 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3128 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3130 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3131 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3132 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3133 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3134 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3135 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3136 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3137 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3138 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3139 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3141 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3142 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3143 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3144 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3146 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3147 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3148 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3151 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3153 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3154 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3155 shared across multiple host platforms.
3157 * longjmp() handling
3159 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3160 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3161 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3162 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3166 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3167 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3172 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3173 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3174 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3176 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3178 * New machines supported (host and target)
3180 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3182 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3183 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3185 * New machines supported (target)
3187 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3191 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3192 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3193 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3195 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3196 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3197 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3198 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3199 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3202 * New features for SVR4
3204 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3205 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3206 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3208 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3209 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3210 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3212 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3213 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3215 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3217 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3218 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3219 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3220 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3221 same code linked statically.
3225 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3226 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3227 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3228 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3229 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3230 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3234 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3235 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3236 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3239 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3241 * New machines supported (host and target)
3243 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3244 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3245 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3247 * Almost SCO Unix support
3249 We had hoped to support:
3250 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3251 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3252 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3253 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3255 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3257 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3258 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3259 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3260 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3265 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3266 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3267 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3271 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3272 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3273 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3275 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3277 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3278 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3279 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3281 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3282 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3283 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3284 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3287 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3288 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3289 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3290 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3293 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3294 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3297 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3298 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3299 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3302 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3304 * Improved configuration
3306 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3307 Porting BFD is simpler.
3311 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3312 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3313 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3314 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3318 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3320 * New host supported (not target)
3322 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3325 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3327 * Multiple source language support
3329 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3330 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3331 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3332 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3333 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3334 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3338 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3339 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3340 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3341 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3343 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3344 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3345 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3347 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3348 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3352 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3353 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3354 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3355 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3358 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3360 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3361 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3362 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3363 examining core files.
3367 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3370 * New machines supported (host and target)
3372 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3373 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3374 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3376 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3378 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3380 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3382 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3383 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3384 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3386 * New remote interfaces
3392 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3396 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3398 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3399 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3400 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3401 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3402 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3403 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3404 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3405 stub on the target system.
3407 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3409 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3410 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3411 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3413 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3414 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3417 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3419 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3420 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3422 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3423 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3424 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3426 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3427 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3428 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3429 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3431 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3432 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3433 it is already running. Default is ON.
3435 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3436 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3437 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3438 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3441 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3442 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3443 or the value of the environment variable
3446 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3447 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3450 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3451 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3452 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3454 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3455 history expansion will be performed on
3456 command line input. The default is OFF.
3458 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3459 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3460 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3462 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3463 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3464 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3467 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3468 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3469 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3472 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3473 ``set width'' instead.
3475 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3476 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3477 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3478 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3480 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3483 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3486 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3489 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3492 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3494 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3495 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3496 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3500 * Support for Shared Libraries
3502 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3503 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3504 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3505 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3506 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3507 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3508 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3509 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3511 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3512 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3513 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3515 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3520 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3521 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3522 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3523 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3524 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3525 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3527 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3529 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3531 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3532 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3533 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3536 * C++ multiple inheritance
3538 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3541 * C++ exception handling
3543 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3544 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3545 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3548 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3549 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3550 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3552 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3553 current stack frame.
3556 * Minor command changes
3558 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3559 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3560 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3562 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3563 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3564 frames without printing.
3566 * New directory command
3568 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3569 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3570 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3571 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3572 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3574 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3576 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3579 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3580 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3581 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3582 where the program that you are debugging will run.