1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.6
6 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
7 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
10 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
11 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
13 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
14 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
16 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
18 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
19 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
20 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
22 * Arrays of explicitly SIGNED or UNSIGNED CHARs are now printed as arrays
25 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
26 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
29 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
32 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
33 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
34 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
36 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
38 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
44 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
45 when debugging using remote targets.
47 set mem inaccessible-by-default
48 show mem inaccessible-by-default
49 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
50 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
51 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
52 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
53 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
55 set breakpoint auto-hw
56 show breakpoint auto-hw
57 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
58 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
59 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
60 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
61 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
62 including "next" and "finish".
65 catch exception unhandled
66 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
69 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
73 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
74 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
75 an alias to "set sysroot".
77 * New native configurations
79 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
84 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
85 not query the target for its built-in description.
89 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
90 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
91 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
96 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
97 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
100 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
105 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
114 i[34567]86-*-netware*
115 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
116 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
118 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
121 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
122 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
131 * Other removed features
138 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
145 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
150 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
151 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
156 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
157 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
159 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
161 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
162 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
163 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
164 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
168 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
169 in debugging information.
173 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
174 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
176 set mips stack-arg-size
177 set mips saved-gpreg-size
179 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
181 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
186 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
188 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
189 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
190 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
192 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
193 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
196 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
197 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
199 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
200 stub provides the required support.
202 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
203 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
208 unset substitute-path
210 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
211 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
212 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
213 between compilation and debugging.
217 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
218 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
219 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
223 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
225 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
226 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
228 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
233 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
234 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
235 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
236 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
240 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
241 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
243 qXfer:memory-map:read:
244 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
245 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
250 Erase and program a flash memory device.
252 * Removed remote packets
255 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
256 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
258 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
262 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
264 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
268 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
269 only if it doesn't already have a value.
271 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
273 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
275 restart <n> Return the program state to a
276 previously saved state.
278 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
280 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
282 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
283 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
285 info forks List forks of the user program that
286 are available to be debugged.
288 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
289 forks of the user program that are
290 available to be debugged.
292 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
293 that are available to be debugged (and
294 kill the forked process).
296 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
297 that are available to be debugged (and
298 allow the process to continue).
302 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
304 * Improved Windows host support
306 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
307 native console support, and remote communications using either
308 network sockets or serial ports.
310 * Improved Modula-2 language support
312 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
313 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
314 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
315 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
316 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
317 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
321 The ARM rdi-share module.
323 The Netware NLM debug server.
325 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
327 * New native configurations
329 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
330 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
334 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
336 * New command line options
338 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
339 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
340 the child (debugged) program exited with.
341 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
342 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
343 specified multiple times and in conjunction
344 with the --command (-x) option.
346 * Deprecated commands removed
348 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
352 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
353 othernames set arm disassembler
354 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
355 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
356 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
359 * New BSD user-level threads support
361 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
362 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
365 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
366 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
367 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
369 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
370 are not yet supported.
372 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
373 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
375 * REMOVED configurations and files
377 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
378 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
379 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
381 * New "set print array-indexes" command
383 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
384 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
387 * VAX floating point support
389 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
391 * User-defined command support
393 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
394 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
395 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
397 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
399 * New command line option
401 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
404 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
406 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
407 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
408 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
409 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
410 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
412 * Internationalization
414 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
415 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
416 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
420 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
421 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
422 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
424 * New native configurations
426 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
430 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
431 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
433 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
435 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
436 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
437 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
440 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
441 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
442 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
454 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
455 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
457 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
459 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
460 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
461 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
471 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
473 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
475 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
476 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
479 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
481 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
482 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
483 IRIX long double values).
487 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
488 command. This problem has been fixed.
490 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
492 * Fix for ``many threads''
494 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
495 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
498 ptrace: No such process.
499 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
501 This problem has been fixed.
503 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
505 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
508 * New ``start'' command.
510 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
512 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
514 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
515 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
516 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
518 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
519 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
520 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
521 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
522 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
523 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
524 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
525 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
526 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
528 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
530 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
531 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
532 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
533 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
534 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
536 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
537 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
538 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
540 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
542 * New native configurations
544 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
545 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
546 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
547 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
548 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
549 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
550 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
552 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
554 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
555 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
556 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
557 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
558 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
559 work, was also included.
561 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
562 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
572 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
573 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
575 * REMOVED configurations and files
577 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
578 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
579 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
580 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
581 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
582 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
583 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
584 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
585 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
587 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
589 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
591 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
593 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
594 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
595 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
596 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
599 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
601 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
602 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
603 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
604 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
605 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
606 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
609 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
611 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
613 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
614 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
615 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
617 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
619 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
620 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
622 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
624 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
625 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
626 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
628 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
630 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
631 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
633 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
635 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
636 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
637 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
639 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
641 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
642 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
643 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
645 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
647 * Removed --with-mmalloc
649 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
650 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
652 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
654 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
655 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
656 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
657 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
659 * Revised SPARC target
661 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
662 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
663 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
664 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
665 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
669 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
670 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
671 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
674 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
676 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
677 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
680 * C++ nested types and namespaces
682 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
683 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
684 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
685 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
686 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
687 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
688 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
689 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
690 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
692 * New native configurations
694 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
695 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
696 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
697 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
698 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
700 * New debugging protocols
702 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
704 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
706 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
707 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
708 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
710 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
712 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
713 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
714 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
717 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
718 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
719 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
720 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
721 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
722 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
723 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
724 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
725 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
727 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
729 * REMOVED configurations and files
731 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
732 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
733 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
734 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
735 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
736 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
737 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
738 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
739 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
740 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
741 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
742 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
743 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
744 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
745 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
746 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
747 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
749 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
753 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
756 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
758 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
759 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
760 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
763 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
764 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
769 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
770 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
771 remote protocol documentation for details.
773 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
775 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
776 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
777 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
780 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
782 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
783 per-thread variables.
785 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
787 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
788 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
790 * Separate debug info.
792 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
793 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
794 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
795 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
796 and optional debug files.
798 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
800 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
801 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
804 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
805 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
809 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
810 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
811 considered "useable".
813 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
815 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
816 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
819 * GDB supports logging output to a file
821 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
822 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
824 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
826 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
827 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
830 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
832 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
833 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
837 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
838 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
839 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
840 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
841 data, for more informative profiling results.
843 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
845 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
846 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
847 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
849 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
852 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
853 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
854 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
855 in a subsequent -var-update.
857 * New native configurations.
859 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
861 * Multi-arched targets.
863 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
864 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
866 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
868 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
869 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
870 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
873 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
874 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
875 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
876 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
877 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
878 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
879 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
880 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
881 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
882 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
883 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
884 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
886 * REMOVED configurations and files
889 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
890 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
891 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
892 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
893 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
894 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
896 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
897 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
898 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
899 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
900 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
901 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
903 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
905 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
906 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
907 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
908 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
909 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
911 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
913 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
915 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
916 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
917 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
918 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
919 shared libs like mad''.
921 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
923 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
924 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
925 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
926 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
928 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
930 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
931 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
934 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
935 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
937 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
938 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
940 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
941 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
942 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
943 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
945 * Multi-arched targets.
947 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
948 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
950 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
951 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
952 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
956 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
959 * New native configurations
961 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
962 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
963 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
964 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
966 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
968 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
969 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
970 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
973 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
974 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
975 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
976 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
977 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
978 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
979 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
980 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
981 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
982 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
984 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
985 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
989 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
991 * REMOVED configurations and files
993 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
994 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
995 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
996 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
997 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
999 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1001 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1003 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1004 commands. The default is 1024.
1006 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1008 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1010 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1012 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1013 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1014 from a file into memory (restore).
1016 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1018 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1019 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1020 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1022 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1030 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1031 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1032 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1034 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1035 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1036 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1038 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1039 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1040 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1042 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1043 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1044 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1046 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1048 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1050 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1051 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1052 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1053 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1054 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1055 (notably embedded) targets.
1057 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1059 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1060 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1061 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1062 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1064 * New command line option
1066 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1068 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1070 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1071 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1072 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1073 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1074 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1075 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1076 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1077 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1078 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1079 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1081 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1083 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1084 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1086 * New native configurations
1088 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1089 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1090 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1091 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1095 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1097 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1099 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1100 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1101 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1102 permanently REMOVED.
1104 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1105 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1106 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1107 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1108 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1110 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1112 * REMOVED configurations and files
1114 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1116 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1117 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1118 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1119 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1120 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1121 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1122 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1123 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1124 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1125 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1126 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1128 * Changes to command line processing
1130 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1131 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1133 * Changes to key bindings
1135 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1137 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1139 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1141 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1144 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1146 Numerous documentation fixes.
1148 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1150 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1152 * New native configurations
1154 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1155 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1156 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1157 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1158 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1159 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1163 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1165 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1167 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1169 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1170 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1171 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1172 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1173 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1175 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1176 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1177 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1178 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1179 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1180 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1181 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1182 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1184 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1185 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1187 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1188 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1189 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1190 permanently REMOVED.
1192 * REMOVED configurations and files
1194 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1195 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1197 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1201 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1203 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1204 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1209 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1211 * The MI enabled by default.
1213 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1214 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1215 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1216 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1217 which is now deprecated.
1219 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1221 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1222 main features are supported:
1224 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1226 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1229 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1231 - a Pascal expression parser.
1233 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1235 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1237 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1239 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1240 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1242 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1244 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1246 * Changes in completion.
1248 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1249 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1250 users expect at the shell prompt.
1252 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1253 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1254 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1255 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1256 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1257 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1258 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1260 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1262 * New platform-independent commands:
1264 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1265 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1266 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1268 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1270 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1271 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1272 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1274 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1276 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1277 multi-threaded programs though.
1279 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1281 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1283 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1284 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1287 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1289 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1290 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1291 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1292 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1293 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1296 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1297 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1298 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1300 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1302 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1303 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1305 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1306 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1309 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1310 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1311 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1312 a given linear address.
1314 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1315 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1316 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1318 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1320 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1322 * Changes in documentation.
1324 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1325 Documentation License.
1327 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1330 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1332 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1335 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1336 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1337 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1339 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1341 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1342 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1343 contents of this file.
1347 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1349 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1351 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1353 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1354 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1355 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1356 greater level of detail.
1358 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1360 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1361 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1362 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1365 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1367 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1368 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1369 machines ``out of the box''.
1371 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1372 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1373 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1374 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1375 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1377 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1378 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1379 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1380 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1381 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1383 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1384 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1387 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1390 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1391 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1392 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1393 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1395 * New native configurations
1397 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1398 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1402 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1403 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1404 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1405 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1407 * OBSOLETE configurations
1409 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1410 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1412 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1415 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1416 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1417 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1418 be permanently REMOVED.
1420 * Gould support removed
1422 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1424 * New features for SVR4
1426 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1427 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1428 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1430 * Many C++ enhancements
1432 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1433 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1435 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1437 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1438 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1439 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1440 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1442 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1443 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1445 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1447 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1448 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1449 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1451 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1452 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1454 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1456 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1457 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1458 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1460 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1462 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1463 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1464 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1466 * ``apropos'' command added.
1468 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1469 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1470 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1474 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1475 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1476 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1477 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1478 enabled by configuring with:
1480 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1482 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1484 * New native configurations
1486 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1487 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1488 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1492 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1493 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1494 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1496 * OBSOLETE configurations
1498 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1500 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1501 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1502 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1503 be permanently REMOVED.
1507 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1508 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1509 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1510 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1511 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1512 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1513 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1518 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1520 * set extension-language
1522 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1523 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1524 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1525 set extension-language .c c++
1526 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1527 and their associated languages.
1529 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1531 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1532 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1533 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1537 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1538 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1540 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1541 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1543 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1544 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1545 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1546 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1547 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1548 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1549 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1550 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1552 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1553 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1554 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1555 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1559 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1560 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1561 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1562 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1563 for xdb and dbx commands.
1567 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1568 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1569 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1571 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1572 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1573 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1575 * Debugging across forks
1577 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1582 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1583 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1584 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1586 * GDB remote protocol additions
1588 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1589 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1590 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1591 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1593 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1594 full 64-bit address. The command
1596 set remoteaddresssize 32
1598 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1599 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1602 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1603 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1605 maint packet heythere
1607 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1608 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1611 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1612 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1613 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1615 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1617 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1618 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1619 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1621 * mask-address variable for Mips
1623 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1624 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1625 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1627 * Higher serial baud rates
1629 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1630 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1631 to achieve all of these rates.)
1635 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1636 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1639 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1641 * New native configurations
1643 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1644 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1645 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1646 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1647 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1648 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1649 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1653 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1654 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1655 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1656 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1657 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1658 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1659 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1660 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1661 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1662 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1663 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1665 * New debugging protocols
1667 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1668 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1669 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1670 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1671 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1672 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1676 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1677 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1682 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1683 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1685 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1687 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1688 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1689 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1691 * Live range splitting
1693 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1694 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1695 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1699 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1700 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1704 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1705 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1706 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1711 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1716 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1717 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1718 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1719 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1720 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1721 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1725 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1726 the symbol at the specified address.
1730 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1731 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1732 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1733 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1734 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1738 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1739 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1740 of most MIPS variants.
1744 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1745 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1746 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1750 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1751 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1752 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1753 the possible architectures.
1755 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1757 * New native configurations
1759 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1760 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1761 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1762 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1763 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1764 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1768 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1769 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1770 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1771 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1772 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1774 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1778 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1779 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1780 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1781 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1782 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1786 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1788 * Windows 95/NT native
1790 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1791 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1792 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1793 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1794 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1796 * dont-repeat command
1798 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1799 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1800 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1801 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1803 * Send break instead of ^C
1805 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1806 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1807 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1809 * Remote protocol timeout
1811 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1812 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1813 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1815 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1817 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1818 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1819 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1820 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1821 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1823 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1824 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1825 automatically on hpux10.
1827 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1829 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1831 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1833 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1834 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1835 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1836 every character. The default value is 1050.
1838 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1840 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1841 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1842 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1843 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1844 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1845 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1847 * Speedups for remote debugging
1849 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1850 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1851 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1853 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1855 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1856 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1858 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1860 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1862 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1863 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1865 * Remote targets use caching
1867 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1868 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1869 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1870 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1871 off' turns the the data cache off.
1873 * Remote targets may have threads
1875 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1876 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1877 gdb/remote.c for details.
1881 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1882 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1883 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1884 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1885 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1886 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1887 sequence is something like
1889 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1891 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1895 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1896 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1897 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1898 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1899 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1900 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1901 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1902 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1906 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1907 but does simplify configuration and building.
1911 GDB now supports hpux10.
1913 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1915 * New native configurations
1917 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1918 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1919 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1920 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1924 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1925 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1926 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1927 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1930 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1932 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1933 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1934 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1935 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1936 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1938 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1940 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1941 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1944 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1946 To execute the command use:
1949 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1950 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1951 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1953 * New `if' and `while' commands
1955 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1956 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1957 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1958 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1959 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1960 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1961 if the expression is zero.
1963 * Fortran source language mode
1965 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1966 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1967 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1968 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1971 * Better HPUX support
1973 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1974 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1975 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1976 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1977 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1983 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1984 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1990 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1991 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1994 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1995 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1997 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1999 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2000 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2001 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2002 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2003 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2004 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2006 * New DOS host serial code
2008 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2009 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2012 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2014 * New "complete" command
2016 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2017 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2019 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2021 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2022 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2024 * Breakpoint hit counts
2026 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2027 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2028 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2029 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2030 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2033 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2035 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2036 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2037 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2039 * Shared library breakpoints
2041 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2042 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2044 * Hardware watchpoints
2046 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2047 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2049 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2053 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2054 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2056 * Improved Irix 5 support
2058 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2060 * Improved HPPA support
2062 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2064 * New native configurations
2066 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2067 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2068 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2069 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2073 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2074 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2077 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2079 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2080 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2084 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2085 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2087 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2089 * Irix 5 is now supported
2093 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2094 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2095 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2096 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2097 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2100 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2102 * User visible changes:
2106 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2107 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2108 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2109 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2110 debugging info for the mips target).
2112 * DEC Alpha native support
2114 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2115 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2116 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2117 Alpha-specific notes.
2119 * Preliminary thread implementation
2121 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2123 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2125 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2126 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2129 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2131 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2132 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2133 call methods, ...etc.
2135 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2137 * User visible changes:
2139 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2140 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2141 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2142 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2144 Filename completion now works.
2146 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2147 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2148 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2150 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2151 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2152 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2153 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2154 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2158 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2159 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2162 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2166 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2167 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2168 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2172 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2173 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2174 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2175 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2176 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2180 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2181 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2182 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2184 * New targets supported
2186 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2187 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2188 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2189 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2190 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2192 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2193 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2194 GO32 memory extender.
2196 * New remote protocols
2198 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2200 * New source languages supported
2202 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2203 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2204 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2207 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2209 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2211 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2212 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2213 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2214 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2215 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2216 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2218 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2220 * Faster and better demangling
2222 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2223 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2224 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2225 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2226 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2227 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2230 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2231 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2232 compiler does not actually implement.
2234 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2236 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2237 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2238 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2239 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2240 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2241 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2244 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2245 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2247 * Improved configure script
2249 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2250 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2251 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2252 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2254 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2255 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2256 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2257 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2258 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2259 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2261 * Documentation improvements
2263 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2264 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2265 before submitting changes.
2267 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2268 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2269 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2270 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2271 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2273 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2274 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2275 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2276 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2277 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2278 around this problem.
2282 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2283 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2284 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2287 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2288 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2290 * New native hosts supported
2292 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2293 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2295 * New targets supported
2297 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2299 * New file formats supported
2301 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2302 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2306 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2308 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2309 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2311 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2312 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2313 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2315 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2316 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2318 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2319 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2320 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2323 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2324 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2325 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2326 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2327 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2329 * Internal improvements
2331 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2332 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2334 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2335 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2336 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2337 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2338 shared code that handles any of them.
2340 * New command line options
2342 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2346 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2347 General Public License.
2349 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2351 * Host/native/target split
2353 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2354 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2355 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2356 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2357 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2359 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2360 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2361 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2362 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2363 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2364 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2365 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2367 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2368 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2369 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2371 * New hosts supported
2373 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2374 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2375 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2377 * New targets supported
2379 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2380 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2382 * New native hosts supported
2384 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2385 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2386 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2388 * New file formats supported
2390 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2391 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2392 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2396 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2397 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2398 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2400 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2402 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2403 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2404 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2405 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2409 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2410 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2411 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2413 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2417 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2418 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2421 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2422 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2424 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2425 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2426 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2427 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2428 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2429 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2431 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2432 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2433 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2434 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2438 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2439 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2440 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2441 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2442 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2444 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2445 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2446 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2447 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2451 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2452 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2453 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2454 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2455 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2456 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2457 each instruction being stepped through.
2459 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2460 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2462 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2463 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2464 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2465 processor with a serial port.
2469 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2470 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2471 supported, and what files each one uses.
2475 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2476 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2477 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2478 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2480 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2481 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2482 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2483 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2487 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2488 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2489 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2490 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2491 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2492 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2494 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2497 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2499 * Better support for C++ function names
2501 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2502 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2503 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2504 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2505 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2507 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2508 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2509 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2510 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2511 for the list of formats.
2513 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2515 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2516 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2517 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2518 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2519 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2520 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2523 * New 'maintenance' command
2525 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2526 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2527 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2529 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2530 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2531 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2532 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2533 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2534 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2536 The following commands are new:
2538 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2539 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2540 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2542 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2544 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2545 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2546 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2547 read after argv processing.
2549 * New hosts supported
2551 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2553 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2555 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2556 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2557 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2558 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2559 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2562 * New targets supported
2564 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2566 * More smarts about finding #include files
2568 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2569 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2570 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2571 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2572 the one that contains your sources.
2574 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2575 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2576 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2578 * Interesting infernals change
2580 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2581 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2582 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2583 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2585 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2587 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2588 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2589 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2591 See the ChangeLog for details.
2593 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2595 * New machines supported (host and target)
2597 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2599 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2601 * New malloc package
2603 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2604 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2605 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2606 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2607 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2608 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2612 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2613 'help info proc' for details.
2615 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2617 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2618 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2621 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2623 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2624 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2625 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2626 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2627 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2628 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2630 * Cross byte order fixes
2632 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2633 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2635 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2637 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2638 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2639 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2640 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2641 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2642 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2643 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2644 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2645 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2646 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2648 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2649 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2650 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2651 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2653 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2654 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2655 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2658 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2660 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2661 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2662 shared across multiple host platforms.
2664 * longjmp() handling
2666 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2667 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2668 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2669 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2673 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2674 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2679 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2680 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2681 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2683 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2685 * New machines supported (host and target)
2687 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2689 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2690 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2692 * New machines supported (target)
2694 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2698 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2699 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2700 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2702 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2703 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2704 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2705 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2706 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2709 * New features for SVR4
2711 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2712 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2713 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2715 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2716 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2717 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2719 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2720 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2722 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2724 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2725 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2726 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2727 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2728 same code linked statically.
2732 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2733 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2734 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2735 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2736 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2737 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2741 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2742 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2743 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2746 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2748 * New machines supported (host and target)
2750 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2751 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2752 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2754 * Almost SCO Unix support
2756 We had hoped to support:
2757 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2758 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2759 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2760 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2762 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2764 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2765 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2766 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2767 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2772 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2773 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2774 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2778 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2779 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2780 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2782 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2784 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2785 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2786 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2788 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2789 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2790 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2791 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2794 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2795 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2796 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2797 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2800 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2801 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2804 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2805 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2806 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2809 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2811 * Improved configuration
2813 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2814 Porting BFD is simpler.
2818 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2819 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2820 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2821 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2825 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2827 * New host supported (not target)
2829 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2832 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2834 * Multiple source language support
2836 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2837 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2838 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2839 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2840 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2841 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2845 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2846 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2847 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2848 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2850 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2851 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2852 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2854 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2855 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2859 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2860 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2861 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2862 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2865 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2867 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2868 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2869 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2870 examining core files.
2874 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2877 * New machines supported (host and target)
2879 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2880 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2881 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2883 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2885 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2887 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2889 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2890 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2891 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2893 * New remote interfaces
2899 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2903 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2905 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2906 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2907 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2908 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2909 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2910 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2911 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2912 stub on the target system.
2914 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2916 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2917 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2918 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2920 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2921 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2924 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2926 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2927 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2929 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2930 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2931 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2933 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2934 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2935 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2936 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2938 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2939 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2940 it is already running. Default is ON.
2942 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2943 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2944 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2945 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2948 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2949 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2950 or the value of the environment variable
2953 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2954 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2957 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2958 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2959 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2961 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2962 history expansion will be performed on
2963 command line input. The default is OFF.
2965 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2966 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2967 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2969 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2970 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2971 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2974 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2975 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2976 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2979 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2980 ``set width'' instead.
2982 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2983 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2984 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2985 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2987 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2990 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2993 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2996 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2999 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3001 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3002 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3003 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3007 * Support for Shared Libraries
3009 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3010 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3011 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3012 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3013 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3014 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3015 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3016 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3018 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3019 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3020 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3022 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3027 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3028 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3029 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3030 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3031 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3032 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3034 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3036 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3038 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3039 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3040 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3043 * C++ multiple inheritance
3045 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3048 * C++ exception handling
3050 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3051 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3052 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3055 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3056 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3057 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3059 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3060 current stack frame.
3063 * Minor command changes
3065 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3066 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3067 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3069 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3070 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3071 frames without printing.
3073 * New directory command
3075 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3076 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3077 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3078 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3079 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3081 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3083 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3086 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3087 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3088 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3089 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob