1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.7
6 * New native configurations
8 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
12 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
14 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
16 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
17 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
18 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
19 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
23 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
24 show print frame-arguments
25 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
26 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
28 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
29 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
31 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
34 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
35 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
36 and in inlined functions.
38 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
39 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
40 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
42 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
44 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
45 registers on PowerPC targets.
47 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
48 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
50 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
51 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
53 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
54 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
55 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
56 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
58 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
59 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
67 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
74 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
83 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
85 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
88 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
90 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
91 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
92 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
94 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
95 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
96 -Bsymbolic linker option.
98 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
99 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
102 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
103 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
105 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
106 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
108 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
110 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
111 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
112 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
114 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
115 automatically displayed as character or string data.
117 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
118 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
121 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
122 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
123 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
125 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
128 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
129 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
130 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
132 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
134 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
136 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
137 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
138 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
140 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
141 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
143 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
144 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
145 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
146 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
147 Windows and SymbianOS).
149 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
150 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
152 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
153 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
159 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
160 when debugging using remote targets.
162 set mem inaccessible-by-default
163 show mem inaccessible-by-default
164 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
165 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
166 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
167 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
168 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
170 set breakpoint auto-hw
171 show breakpoint auto-hw
172 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
173 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
174 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
175 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
176 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
177 including "next" and "finish".
180 catch exception unhandled
181 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
184 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
188 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
189 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
190 an alias to "set sysroot".
193 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
194 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
197 * New native configurations
199 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
204 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
205 not query the target for its built-in description.
209 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
210 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
211 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
216 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
217 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
220 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
225 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
226 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
228 qXfer:libraries:read:
229 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
230 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
231 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
232 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
236 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
245 i[34567]86-*-netware*
246 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
247 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
249 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
252 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
253 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
262 * Other removed features
269 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
276 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
281 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
282 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
287 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
288 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
290 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
292 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
293 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
294 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
295 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
299 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
300 in debugging information.
304 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
305 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
307 set mips stack-arg-size
308 set mips saved-gpreg-size
310 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
312 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
317 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
319 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
320 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
321 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
323 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
324 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
327 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
328 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
330 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
331 stub provides the required support.
333 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
334 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
339 unset substitute-path
341 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
342 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
343 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
344 between compilation and debugging.
348 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
349 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
350 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
354 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
356 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
357 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
359 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
364 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
365 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
366 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
367 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
371 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
372 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
374 qXfer:memory-map:read:
375 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
376 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
381 Erase and program a flash memory device.
383 * Removed remote packets
386 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
387 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
389 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
393 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
395 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
399 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
400 only if it doesn't already have a value.
402 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
404 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
406 restart <n> Return the program state to a
407 previously saved state.
409 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
411 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
413 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
414 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
416 info forks List forks of the user program that
417 are available to be debugged.
419 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
420 forks of the user program that are
421 available to be debugged.
423 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
424 that are available to be debugged (and
425 kill the forked process).
427 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
428 that are available to be debugged (and
429 allow the process to continue).
433 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
435 * Improved Windows host support
437 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
438 native console support, and remote communications using either
439 network sockets or serial ports.
441 * Improved Modula-2 language support
443 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
444 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
445 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
446 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
447 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
448 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
452 The ARM rdi-share module.
454 The Netware NLM debug server.
456 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
458 * New native configurations
460 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
461 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
465 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
467 * New command line options
469 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
470 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
471 the child (debugged) program exited with.
472 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
473 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
474 specified multiple times and in conjunction
475 with the --command (-x) option.
477 * Deprecated commands removed
479 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
483 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
484 othernames set arm disassembler
485 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
486 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
487 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
490 * New BSD user-level threads support
492 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
493 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
496 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
497 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
498 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
500 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
501 are not yet supported.
503 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
504 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
506 * REMOVED configurations and files
508 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
509 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
510 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
512 * New "set print array-indexes" command
514 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
515 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
518 * VAX floating point support
520 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
522 * User-defined command support
524 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
525 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
526 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
528 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
530 * New command line option
532 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
535 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
537 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
538 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
539 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
540 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
541 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
543 * Internationalization
545 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
546 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
547 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
551 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
552 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
553 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
555 * New native configurations
557 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
561 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
562 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
564 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
566 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
567 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
568 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
571 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
572 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
573 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
585 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
586 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
588 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
590 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
591 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
592 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
602 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
604 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
606 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
607 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
610 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
612 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
613 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
614 IRIX long double values).
618 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
619 command. This problem has been fixed.
621 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
623 * Fix for ``many threads''
625 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
626 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
629 ptrace: No such process.
630 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
632 This problem has been fixed.
634 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
636 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
639 * New ``start'' command.
641 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
643 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
645 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
646 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
647 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
649 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
650 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
651 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
652 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
653 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
654 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
655 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
656 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
657 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
659 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
661 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
662 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
663 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
664 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
665 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
667 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
668 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
669 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
671 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
673 * New native configurations
675 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
676 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
677 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
678 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
679 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
680 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
681 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
683 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
685 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
686 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
687 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
688 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
689 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
690 work, was also included.
692 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
693 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
703 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
704 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
706 * REMOVED configurations and files
708 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
709 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
710 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
711 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
712 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
713 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
714 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
715 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
716 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
718 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
720 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
722 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
724 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
725 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
726 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
727 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
730 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
732 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
733 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
734 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
735 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
736 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
737 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
740 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
742 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
744 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
745 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
746 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
748 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
750 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
751 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
753 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
755 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
756 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
757 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
759 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
761 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
762 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
764 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
766 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
767 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
768 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
770 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
772 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
773 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
774 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
776 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
778 * Removed --with-mmalloc
780 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
781 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
783 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
785 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
786 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
787 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
788 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
790 * Revised SPARC target
792 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
793 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
794 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
795 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
796 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
800 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
801 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
802 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
805 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
807 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
808 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
811 * C++ nested types and namespaces
813 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
814 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
815 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
816 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
817 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
818 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
819 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
820 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
821 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
823 * New native configurations
825 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
826 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
827 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
828 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
829 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
831 * New debugging protocols
833 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
835 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
837 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
838 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
839 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
841 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
843 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
844 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
845 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
848 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
849 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
850 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
851 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
852 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
853 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
854 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
855 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
856 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
858 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
860 * REMOVED configurations and files
862 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
863 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
864 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
865 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
866 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
867 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
868 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
869 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
870 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
871 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
872 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
873 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
874 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
875 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
876 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
877 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
878 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
880 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
884 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
887 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
889 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
890 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
891 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
894 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
895 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
900 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
901 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
902 remote protocol documentation for details.
904 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
906 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
907 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
908 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
911 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
913 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
914 per-thread variables.
916 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
918 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
919 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
921 * Separate debug info.
923 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
924 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
925 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
926 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
927 and optional debug files.
929 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
931 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
932 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
935 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
936 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
940 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
941 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
942 considered "useable".
944 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
946 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
947 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
950 * GDB supports logging output to a file
952 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
953 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
955 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
957 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
958 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
961 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
963 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
964 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
968 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
969 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
970 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
971 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
972 data, for more informative profiling results.
974 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
976 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
977 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
978 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
980 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
983 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
984 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
985 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
986 in a subsequent -var-update.
988 * New native configurations.
990 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
992 * Multi-arched targets.
994 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
995 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
997 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
999 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1000 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1001 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1002 permanently REMOVED.
1004 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1005 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1006 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1007 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1008 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1009 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1010 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1011 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1012 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1013 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1014 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1015 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1017 * REMOVED configurations and files
1020 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1021 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1022 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1023 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1024 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1025 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1027 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1028 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1029 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1030 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1031 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1032 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1034 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1036 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1037 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1038 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1039 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1040 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1042 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1044 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1046 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1047 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1048 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1049 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1050 shared libs like mad''.
1052 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1054 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1055 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1056 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1057 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1059 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1061 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1062 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1065 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1066 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1068 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1069 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1071 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1072 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1073 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1074 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1076 * Multi-arched targets.
1078 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1079 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1081 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1082 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1083 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1087 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1090 * New native configurations
1092 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1093 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1094 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1095 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
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 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1105 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1106 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1107 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1108 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1109 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1110 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1111 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1112 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1113 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1115 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1116 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1118 * OBSOLETE languages
1120 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1122 * REMOVED configurations and files
1124 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1125 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1126 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1127 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1128 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1130 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1132 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1134 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1135 commands. The default is 1024.
1137 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1139 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1141 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1143 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1144 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1145 from a file into memory (restore).
1147 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1149 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1150 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1151 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1153 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1161 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1162 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1163 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1165 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1166 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1167 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1169 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1170 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1171 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1173 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1174 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1175 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1177 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1179 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1181 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1182 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1183 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1184 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1185 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1186 (notably embedded) targets.
1188 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1190 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1191 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1192 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1193 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1195 * New command line option
1197 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1199 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1201 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1202 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1203 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1204 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1205 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1206 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1207 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1208 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1209 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1210 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1212 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1214 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1215 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1217 * New native configurations
1219 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1220 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1221 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1222 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1226 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1228 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1230 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1231 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1232 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1233 permanently REMOVED.
1235 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1236 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1237 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1238 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1239 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1241 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1243 * REMOVED configurations and files
1245 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1247 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1248 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1249 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1250 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1251 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1252 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1253 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1254 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1255 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1256 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1257 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1259 * Changes to command line processing
1261 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1262 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1264 * Changes to key bindings
1266 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1268 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1270 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1272 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1275 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1277 Numerous documentation fixes.
1279 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1281 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1283 * New native configurations
1285 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1286 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1287 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1288 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1289 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1290 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1294 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1296 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1298 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1300 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1301 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1302 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1303 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1304 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1306 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1307 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1308 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1309 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1310 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1311 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1312 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1313 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1315 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1316 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1318 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1319 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1320 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1321 permanently REMOVED.
1323 * REMOVED configurations and files
1325 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1326 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1328 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1332 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1334 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1335 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1340 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1342 * The MI enabled by default.
1344 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1345 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1346 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1347 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1348 which is now deprecated.
1350 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1352 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1353 main features are supported:
1355 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1357 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1360 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1362 - a Pascal expression parser.
1364 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1366 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1368 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1370 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1371 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1373 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1375 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1377 * Changes in completion.
1379 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1380 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1381 users expect at the shell prompt.
1383 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1384 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1385 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1386 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1387 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1388 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1389 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1391 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1393 * New platform-independent commands:
1395 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1396 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1397 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1399 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1401 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1402 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1403 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1405 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1407 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1408 multi-threaded programs though.
1410 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1412 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1414 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1415 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1418 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1420 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1421 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1422 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1423 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1424 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1427 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1428 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1429 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1431 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1433 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1434 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1436 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1437 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1440 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1441 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1442 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1443 a given linear address.
1445 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1446 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1447 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1449 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1451 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1453 * Changes in documentation.
1455 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1456 Documentation License.
1458 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1461 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1463 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1466 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1467 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1468 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1470 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1472 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1473 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1474 contents of this file.
1478 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1480 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1482 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1484 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1485 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1486 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1487 greater level of detail.
1489 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1491 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1492 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1493 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1496 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1498 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1499 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1500 machines ``out of the box''.
1502 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1503 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1504 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1505 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1506 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1508 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1509 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1510 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1511 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1512 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1514 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1515 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1518 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1521 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1522 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1523 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1524 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1526 * New native configurations
1528 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1529 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1533 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1534 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1535 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1536 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1538 * OBSOLETE configurations
1540 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1541 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1543 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1546 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1547 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1548 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1549 be permanently REMOVED.
1551 * Gould support removed
1553 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1555 * New features for SVR4
1557 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1558 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1559 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1561 * Many C++ enhancements
1563 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1564 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1566 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1568 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1569 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1570 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1571 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1573 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1574 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1576 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1578 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1579 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1580 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1582 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1583 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1585 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1587 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1588 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1589 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1591 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1593 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1594 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1595 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1597 * ``apropos'' command added.
1599 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1600 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1601 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1605 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1606 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1607 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1608 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1609 enabled by configuring with:
1611 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1613 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1615 * New native configurations
1617 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1618 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1619 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1623 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1624 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1625 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1627 * OBSOLETE configurations
1629 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1631 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1632 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1633 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1634 be permanently REMOVED.
1638 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1639 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1640 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1641 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1642 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1643 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1644 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1649 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1651 * set extension-language
1653 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1654 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1655 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1656 set extension-language .c c++
1657 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1658 and their associated languages.
1660 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1662 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1663 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1664 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1668 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1669 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1671 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1672 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1674 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1675 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1676 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1677 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1678 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1679 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1680 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1681 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1683 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1684 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1685 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1686 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1690 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1691 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1692 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1693 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1694 for xdb and dbx commands.
1698 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1699 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1700 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1702 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1703 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1704 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1706 * Debugging across forks
1708 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1713 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1714 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1715 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1717 * GDB remote protocol additions
1719 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1720 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1721 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1722 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1724 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1725 full 64-bit address. The command
1727 set remoteaddresssize 32
1729 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1730 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1733 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1734 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1736 maint packet heythere
1738 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1739 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1742 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1743 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1744 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1746 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1748 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1749 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1750 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1752 * mask-address variable for Mips
1754 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1755 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1756 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1758 * Higher serial baud rates
1760 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1761 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1762 to achieve all of these rates.)
1766 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1767 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1770 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1772 * New native configurations
1774 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1775 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1776 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1777 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1778 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1779 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1780 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1784 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1785 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1786 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1787 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1788 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1789 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1790 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1791 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1792 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1793 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1794 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1796 * New debugging protocols
1798 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1799 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1800 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1801 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1802 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1803 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1807 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1808 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1813 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1814 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1816 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1818 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1819 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1820 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1822 * Live range splitting
1824 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1825 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1826 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1830 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1831 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1835 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1836 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1837 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1842 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1847 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1848 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1849 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1850 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1851 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1852 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1856 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1857 the symbol at the specified address.
1861 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1862 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1863 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1864 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1865 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1869 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1870 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1871 of most MIPS variants.
1875 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1876 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1877 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1881 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1882 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1883 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1884 the possible architectures.
1886 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1888 * New native configurations
1890 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1891 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1892 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1893 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1894 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1895 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1899 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1900 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1901 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1902 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1903 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1905 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1909 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1910 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1911 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1912 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1913 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1917 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1919 * Windows 95/NT native
1921 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1922 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1923 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1924 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1925 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1927 * dont-repeat command
1929 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1930 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1931 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1932 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1934 * Send break instead of ^C
1936 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1937 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1938 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1940 * Remote protocol timeout
1942 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1943 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1944 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1946 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1948 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1949 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1950 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1951 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1952 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1954 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1955 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1956 automatically on hpux10.
1958 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1960 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1962 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1964 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1965 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1966 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1967 every character. The default value is 1050.
1969 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1971 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1972 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1973 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1974 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1975 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1976 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1978 * Speedups for remote debugging
1980 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1981 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1982 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1984 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1986 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1987 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1989 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1991 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1993 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1994 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1996 * Remote targets use caching
1998 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1999 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2000 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2001 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2002 off' turns the the data cache off.
2004 * Remote targets may have threads
2006 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2007 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2008 gdb/remote.c for details.
2012 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2013 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2014 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2015 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2016 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2017 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2018 sequence is something like
2020 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2022 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2026 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2027 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2028 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2029 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2030 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2031 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2032 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2033 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2037 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2038 but does simplify configuration and building.
2042 GDB now supports hpux10.
2044 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2046 * New native configurations
2048 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2049 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2050 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2051 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2055 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2056 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2057 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2058 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2061 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2063 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2064 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2065 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2066 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2067 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2069 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2071 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2072 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2075 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2077 To execute the command use:
2080 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2081 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2082 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2084 * New `if' and `while' commands
2086 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2087 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2088 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2089 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2090 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2091 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2092 if the expression is zero.
2094 * Fortran source language mode
2096 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2097 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2098 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2099 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2102 * Better HPUX support
2104 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2105 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2106 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2107 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2108 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2114 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2115 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2121 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2122 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2125 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2126 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2128 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2130 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2131 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2132 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2133 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2134 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2135 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2137 * New DOS host serial code
2139 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2140 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2143 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2145 * New "complete" command
2147 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2148 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2150 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2152 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2153 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2155 * Breakpoint hit counts
2157 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2158 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2159 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2160 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2161 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2164 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2166 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2167 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2168 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2170 * Shared library breakpoints
2172 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2173 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2175 * Hardware watchpoints
2177 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2178 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2180 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2184 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2185 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2187 * Improved Irix 5 support
2189 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2191 * Improved HPPA support
2193 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2195 * New native configurations
2197 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2198 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2199 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2200 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2204 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2205 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2208 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2210 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2211 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2215 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2216 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2218 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2220 * Irix 5 is now supported
2224 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2225 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2226 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2227 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2228 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2231 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2233 * User visible changes:
2237 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2238 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2239 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2240 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2241 debugging info for the mips target).
2243 * DEC Alpha native support
2245 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2246 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2247 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2248 Alpha-specific notes.
2250 * Preliminary thread implementation
2252 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2254 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2256 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2257 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2260 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2262 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2263 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2264 call methods, ...etc.
2266 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2268 * User visible changes:
2270 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2271 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2272 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2273 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2275 Filename completion now works.
2277 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2278 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2279 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2281 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2282 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2283 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2284 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2285 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2289 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2290 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2293 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2297 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2298 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2299 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2303 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2304 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2305 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2306 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2307 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2311 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2312 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2313 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2315 * New targets supported
2317 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2318 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2319 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2320 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2321 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2323 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2324 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2325 GO32 memory extender.
2327 * New remote protocols
2329 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2331 * New source languages supported
2333 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2334 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2335 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2338 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2340 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2342 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2343 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2344 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2345 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2346 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2347 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2349 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2351 * Faster and better demangling
2353 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2354 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2355 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2356 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2357 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2358 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2361 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2362 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2363 compiler does not actually implement.
2365 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2367 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2368 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2369 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2370 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2371 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2372 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2375 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2376 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2378 * Improved configure script
2380 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2381 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2382 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2383 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2385 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2386 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2387 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2388 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2389 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2390 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2392 * Documentation improvements
2394 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2395 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2396 before submitting changes.
2398 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2399 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2400 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2401 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2402 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2404 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2405 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2406 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2407 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2408 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2409 around this problem.
2413 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2414 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2415 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2418 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2419 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2421 * New native hosts supported
2423 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2424 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2426 * New targets supported
2428 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2430 * New file formats supported
2432 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2433 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2437 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2439 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2440 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2442 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2443 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2444 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2446 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2447 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2449 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2450 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2451 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2454 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2455 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2456 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2457 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2458 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2460 * Internal improvements
2462 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2463 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2465 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2466 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2467 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2468 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2469 shared code that handles any of them.
2471 * New command line options
2473 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2477 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2478 General Public License.
2480 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2482 * Host/native/target split
2484 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2485 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2486 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2487 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2488 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2490 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2491 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2492 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2493 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2494 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2495 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2496 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2498 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2499 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2500 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2502 * New hosts supported
2504 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2505 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2506 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2508 * New targets supported
2510 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2511 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2513 * New native hosts supported
2515 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2516 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2517 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2519 * New file formats supported
2521 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2522 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2523 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2527 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2528 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2529 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2531 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2533 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2534 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2535 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2536 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2540 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2541 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2542 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2544 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2548 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2549 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2552 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2553 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2555 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2556 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2557 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2558 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2559 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2560 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2562 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2563 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2564 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2565 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2569 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2570 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2571 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2572 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2573 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2575 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2576 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2577 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2578 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2582 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2583 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2584 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2585 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2586 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2587 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2588 each instruction being stepped through.
2590 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2591 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2593 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2594 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2595 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2596 processor with a serial port.
2600 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2601 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2602 supported, and what files each one uses.
2606 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2607 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2608 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2609 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2611 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2612 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2613 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2614 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2618 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2619 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2620 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2621 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2622 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2623 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2625 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2628 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2630 * Better support for C++ function names
2632 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2633 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2634 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2635 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2636 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2638 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2639 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2640 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2641 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2642 for the list of formats.
2644 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2646 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2647 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2648 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2649 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2650 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2651 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2654 * New 'maintenance' command
2656 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2657 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2658 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2660 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2661 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2662 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2663 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2664 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2665 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2667 The following commands are new:
2669 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2670 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2671 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2673 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2675 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2676 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2677 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2678 read after argv processing.
2680 * New hosts supported
2682 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2684 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2686 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2687 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2688 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2689 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2690 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2693 * New targets supported
2695 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2697 * More smarts about finding #include files
2699 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2700 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2701 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2702 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2703 the one that contains your sources.
2705 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2706 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2707 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2709 * Interesting infernals change
2711 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2712 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2713 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2714 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2716 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2718 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2719 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2720 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2722 See the ChangeLog for details.
2724 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2726 * New machines supported (host and target)
2728 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2730 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2732 * New malloc package
2734 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2735 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2736 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2737 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2738 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2739 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2743 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2744 'help info proc' for details.
2746 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2748 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2749 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2752 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2754 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2755 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2756 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2757 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2758 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2759 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2761 * Cross byte order fixes
2763 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2764 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2766 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2768 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2769 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2770 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2771 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2772 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2773 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2774 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2775 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2776 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2777 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2779 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2780 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2781 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2782 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2784 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2785 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2786 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2789 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2791 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2792 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2793 shared across multiple host platforms.
2795 * longjmp() handling
2797 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2798 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2799 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2800 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2804 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2805 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2810 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2811 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2812 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2814 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2816 * New machines supported (host and target)
2818 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2820 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2821 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2823 * New machines supported (target)
2825 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2829 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2830 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2831 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2833 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2834 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2835 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2836 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2837 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2840 * New features for SVR4
2842 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2843 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2844 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2846 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2847 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2848 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2850 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2851 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2853 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2855 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2856 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2857 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2858 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2859 same code linked statically.
2863 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2864 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2865 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2866 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2867 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2868 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2872 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2873 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2874 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2877 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2879 * New machines supported (host and target)
2881 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2882 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2883 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2885 * Almost SCO Unix support
2887 We had hoped to support:
2888 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2889 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2890 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2891 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2893 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2895 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2896 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2897 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2898 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2903 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2904 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2905 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2909 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2910 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2911 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2913 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2915 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2916 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2917 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2919 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2920 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2921 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2922 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2925 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2926 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2927 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2928 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2931 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2932 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2935 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2936 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2937 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2940 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2942 * Improved configuration
2944 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2945 Porting BFD is simpler.
2949 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2950 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2951 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2952 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2956 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2958 * New host supported (not target)
2960 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2963 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2965 * Multiple source language support
2967 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2968 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2969 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2970 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2971 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2972 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2976 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2977 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2978 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2979 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2981 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2982 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2983 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2985 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2986 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2990 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2991 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2992 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2993 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2996 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2998 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2999 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3000 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3001 examining core files.
3005 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3008 * New machines supported (host and target)
3010 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3011 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3012 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3014 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3016 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3018 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3020 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3021 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3022 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3024 * New remote interfaces
3030 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3034 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3036 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3037 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3038 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3039 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3040 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3041 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3042 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3043 stub on the target system.
3045 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3047 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3048 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3049 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3051 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3052 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3055 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3057 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3058 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3060 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3061 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3062 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3064 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3065 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3066 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3067 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3069 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3070 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3071 it is already running. Default is ON.
3073 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3074 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3075 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3076 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3079 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3080 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3081 or the value of the environment variable
3084 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3085 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3088 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3089 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3090 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3092 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3093 history expansion will be performed on
3094 command line input. The default is OFF.
3096 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3097 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3098 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3100 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3101 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3102 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3105 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3106 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3107 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3110 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3111 ``set width'' instead.
3113 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3114 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3115 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3116 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3118 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3121 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3124 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3127 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3130 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3132 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3133 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3134 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3138 * Support for Shared Libraries
3140 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3141 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3142 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3143 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3144 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3145 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3146 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3147 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3149 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3150 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3151 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3153 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3158 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3159 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3160 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3161 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3162 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3163 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3165 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3167 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3169 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3170 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3171 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3174 * C++ multiple inheritance
3176 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3179 * C++ exception handling
3181 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3182 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3183 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3186 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3187 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3188 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3190 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3191 current stack frame.
3194 * Minor command changes
3196 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3197 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3198 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3200 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3201 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3202 frames without printing.
3204 * New directory command
3206 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3207 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3208 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3209 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3210 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3212 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3214 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3217 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3218 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3219 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3220 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob