1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
7 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
8 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
9 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
11 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
12 now complete on file names.
14 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
15 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
16 For instance, consider:
18 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
19 # struct example variable;
22 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
23 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
28 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
31 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
32 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
33 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
35 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
37 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
38 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
39 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
41 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
44 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
45 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
47 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
48 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
49 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
51 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
52 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
54 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
56 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
57 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
59 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
60 list of section offsets.
62 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
63 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
66 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
67 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
68 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
70 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
72 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
73 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
75 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
76 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
77 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
79 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
80 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
84 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
85 available is determined at configure time.
89 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
91 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
93 maint set python print-stack
94 maint show python print-stack
95 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
98 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
100 set print symbol-loading
101 show print symbol-loading
102 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
106 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
111 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
113 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
114 show multiple-symbols
115 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
116 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
117 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
119 set breakpoint always-inserted
120 show breakpoint always-inserted
121 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
122 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
123 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
125 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
126 show arm fallback-mode
127 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
129 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
130 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
131 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
132 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
134 set disable-randomization
135 show disable-randomization
136 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
137 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
138 multiple debugging sessions.
141 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
142 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
143 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
144 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
149 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
154 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
156 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
158 * New native configurations
160 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
161 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
165 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
166 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
168 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
170 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
171 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
172 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
173 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
175 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
176 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
178 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
181 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
182 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
183 and in inlined functions.
185 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
186 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
187 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
189 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
191 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
192 registers on PowerPC targets.
194 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
195 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
197 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
198 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
200 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
201 extended-remote mode.
203 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
204 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
205 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
206 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
208 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
209 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
210 target architectures.
212 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
213 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
214 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
215 stored in two consecutive float registers.
217 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
220 * Improved support for debugging Ada
221 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
223 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
224 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
225 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
226 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
228 - Improved command completion in Ada
231 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
236 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
237 show print frame-arguments
238 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
239 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
244 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
251 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
260 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
263 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
267 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
269 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
271 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
272 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
273 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
275 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
276 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
277 -Bsymbolic linker option.
279 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
280 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
283 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
284 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
286 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
287 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
289 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
291 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
292 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
293 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
295 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
296 automatically displayed as character or string data.
298 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
299 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
302 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
303 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
304 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
306 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
309 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
310 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
311 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
313 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
315 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
317 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
318 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
319 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
321 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
322 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
324 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
325 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
326 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
327 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
328 Windows and SymbianOS).
330 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
331 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
333 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
334 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
340 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
341 when debugging using remote targets.
343 set mem inaccessible-by-default
344 show mem inaccessible-by-default
345 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
346 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
347 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
348 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
349 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
351 set breakpoint auto-hw
352 show breakpoint auto-hw
353 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
354 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
355 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
356 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
357 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
358 including "next" and "finish".
361 catch exception unhandled
362 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
365 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
369 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
370 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
371 an alias to "set sysroot".
374 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
375 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
378 * New native configurations
380 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
385 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
386 not query the target for its built-in description.
390 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
391 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
392 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
397 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
398 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
401 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
406 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
407 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
409 qXfer:libraries:read:
410 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
411 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
412 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
413 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
417 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
426 i[34567]86-*-netware*
427 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
428 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
430 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
433 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
434 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
443 * Other removed features
450 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
457 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
462 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
463 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
468 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
469 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
471 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
473 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
474 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
475 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
476 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
480 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
481 in debugging information.
485 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
486 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
488 set mips stack-arg-size
489 set mips saved-gpreg-size
491 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
493 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
498 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
500 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
501 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
502 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
504 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
505 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
508 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
509 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
511 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
512 stub provides the required support.
514 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
515 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
520 unset substitute-path
522 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
523 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
524 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
525 between compilation and debugging.
529 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
530 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
531 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
535 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
537 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
538 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
540 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
545 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
546 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
547 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
548 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
552 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
553 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
555 qXfer:memory-map:read:
556 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
557 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
562 Erase and program a flash memory device.
564 * Removed remote packets
567 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
568 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
570 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
574 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
576 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
580 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
581 only if it doesn't already have a value.
583 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
585 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
587 restart <n> Return the program state to a
588 previously saved state.
590 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
592 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
594 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
595 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
597 info forks List forks of the user program that
598 are available to be debugged.
600 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
601 forks of the user program that are
602 available to be debugged.
604 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
605 that are available to be debugged (and
606 kill the forked process).
608 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
609 that are available to be debugged (and
610 allow the process to continue).
614 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
616 * Improved Windows host support
618 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
619 native console support, and remote communications using either
620 network sockets or serial ports.
622 * Improved Modula-2 language support
624 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
625 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
626 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
627 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
628 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
629 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
633 The ARM rdi-share module.
635 The Netware NLM debug server.
637 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
639 * New native configurations
641 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
642 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
646 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
648 * New command line options
650 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
651 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
652 the child (debugged) program exited with.
653 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
654 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
655 specified multiple times and in conjunction
656 with the --command (-x) option.
658 * Deprecated commands removed
660 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
664 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
665 othernames set arm disassembler
666 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
667 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
668 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
671 * New BSD user-level threads support
673 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
674 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
677 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
678 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
679 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
681 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
682 are not yet supported.
684 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
685 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
687 * REMOVED configurations and files
689 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
690 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
691 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
693 * New "set print array-indexes" command
695 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
696 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
699 * VAX floating point support
701 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
703 * User-defined command support
705 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
706 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
707 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
709 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
711 * New command line option
713 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
716 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
718 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
719 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
720 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
721 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
722 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
724 * Internationalization
726 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
727 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
728 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
732 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
733 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
734 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
736 * New native configurations
738 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
742 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
743 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
745 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
747 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
748 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
749 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
752 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
753 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
754 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
766 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
767 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
769 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
771 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
772 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
773 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
783 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
785 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
787 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
788 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
791 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
793 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
794 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
795 IRIX long double values).
799 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
800 command. This problem has been fixed.
802 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
804 * Fix for ``many threads''
806 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
807 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
810 ptrace: No such process.
811 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
813 This problem has been fixed.
815 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
817 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
820 * New ``start'' command.
822 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
824 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
826 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
827 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
828 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
830 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
831 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
832 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
833 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
834 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
835 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
836 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
837 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
838 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
840 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
842 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
843 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
844 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
845 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
846 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
848 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
849 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
850 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
852 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
854 * New native configurations
856 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
857 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
858 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
859 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
860 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
861 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
862 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
864 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
866 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
867 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
868 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
869 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
870 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
871 work, was also included.
873 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
874 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
884 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
885 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
887 * REMOVED configurations and files
889 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
890 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
891 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
892 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
893 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
894 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
895 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
896 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
897 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
899 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
901 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
903 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
905 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
906 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
907 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
908 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
911 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
913 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
914 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
915 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
916 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
917 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
918 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
921 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
923 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
925 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
926 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
927 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
929 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
931 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
932 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
934 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
936 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
937 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
938 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
940 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
942 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
943 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
945 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
947 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
948 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
949 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
951 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
953 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
954 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
955 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
957 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
959 * Removed --with-mmalloc
961 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
962 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
964 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
966 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
967 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
968 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
969 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
971 * Revised SPARC target
973 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
974 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
975 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
976 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
977 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
981 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
982 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
983 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
986 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
988 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
989 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
992 * C++ nested types and namespaces
994 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
995 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
996 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
997 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
998 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
999 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1000 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1001 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1002 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1004 * New native configurations
1006 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1007 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1008 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1009 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1010 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1012 * New debugging protocols
1014 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1016 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1018 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1019 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1020 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1022 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1024 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1025 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1026 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1027 permanently REMOVED.
1029 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1030 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1031 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1032 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1033 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1034 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1035 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1036 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1037 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1038 sonymips mips-sony-*
1039 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1041 * REMOVED configurations and files
1043 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1044 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1045 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1046 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1047 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1048 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1049 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1050 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1051 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1052 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1053 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1054 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1055 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1056 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1057 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1058 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1059 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1061 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1065 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1066 integrated into GDB.
1068 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1070 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1071 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1072 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1075 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1076 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1077 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1081 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1082 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1083 remote protocol documentation for details.
1085 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1087 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1088 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1089 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1092 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1094 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1095 per-thread variables.
1097 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1099 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1100 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1102 * Separate debug info.
1104 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1105 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1106 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1107 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1108 and optional debug files.
1110 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1112 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1113 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1116 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1117 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1121 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1122 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1123 considered "useable".
1125 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1127 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1128 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1131 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1133 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1134 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1136 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1138 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1139 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1142 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1144 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1145 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1149 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1150 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1151 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1152 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1153 data, for more informative profiling results.
1155 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1157 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1158 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1159 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1161 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1164 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1165 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1166 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1167 in a subsequent -var-update.
1169 * New native configurations.
1171 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1173 * Multi-arched targets.
1175 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1176 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1178 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1180 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1181 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1182 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1183 permanently REMOVED.
1185 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1186 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1187 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1188 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1189 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1190 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1191 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1192 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1193 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1194 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1195 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1196 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1198 * REMOVED configurations and files
1201 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1202 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1203 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1204 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1205 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1206 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1208 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1209 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1210 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1211 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1212 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1213 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1215 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1217 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1218 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1219 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1220 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1221 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1223 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1225 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1227 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1228 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1229 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1230 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1231 shared libs like mad''.
1233 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1235 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1236 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1237 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1238 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1240 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1242 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1243 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1246 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1247 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1249 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1250 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1252 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1253 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1254 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1255 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1257 * Multi-arched targets.
1259 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1260 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1262 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1263 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1264 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1268 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1271 * New native configurations
1273 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1274 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1275 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1276 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1278 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1280 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1281 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1282 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1283 permanently REMOVED.
1285 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1286 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1287 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1288 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1289 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1290 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1291 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1292 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1293 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1294 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1296 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1297 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1299 * OBSOLETE languages
1301 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1303 * REMOVED configurations and files
1305 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1306 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1307 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1308 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1309 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1311 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1313 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1315 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1316 commands. The default is 1024.
1318 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1320 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1322 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1324 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1325 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1326 from a file into memory (restore).
1328 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1330 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1331 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1332 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1334 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1342 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1343 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1344 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1346 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1347 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1348 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1350 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1351 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1352 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1354 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1355 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1356 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1358 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1360 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1362 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1363 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1364 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1365 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1366 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1367 (notably embedded) targets.
1369 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1371 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1372 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1373 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1374 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1376 * New command line option
1378 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1380 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1382 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1383 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1384 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1385 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1386 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1387 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1388 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1389 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1390 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1391 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1393 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1395 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1396 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1398 * New native configurations
1400 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1401 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1402 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1403 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1407 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1409 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1411 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1412 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1413 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1414 permanently REMOVED.
1416 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1417 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1418 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1419 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1420 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1422 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1424 * REMOVED configurations and files
1426 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1428 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1429 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1430 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1431 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1432 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1433 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1434 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1435 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1436 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1437 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1438 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1440 * Changes to command line processing
1442 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1443 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1445 * Changes to key bindings
1447 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1449 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1451 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1453 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1456 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1458 Numerous documentation fixes.
1460 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1462 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1464 * New native configurations
1466 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1467 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1468 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1469 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1470 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1471 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1475 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1477 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1479 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1481 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1482 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1483 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1484 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1485 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1487 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1488 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1489 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1490 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1491 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1492 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1493 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1494 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1496 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1497 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1499 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1500 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1501 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1502 permanently REMOVED.
1504 * REMOVED configurations and files
1506 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1507 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1509 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1513 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1515 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1516 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1521 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1523 * The MI enabled by default.
1525 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1526 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1527 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1528 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1529 which is now deprecated.
1531 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1533 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1534 main features are supported:
1536 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1538 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1541 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1543 - a Pascal expression parser.
1545 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1547 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1549 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1551 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1552 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1554 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1556 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1558 * Changes in completion.
1560 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1561 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1562 users expect at the shell prompt.
1564 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1565 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1566 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1567 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1568 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1569 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1570 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1572 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1574 * New platform-independent commands:
1576 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1577 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1578 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1580 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1582 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1583 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1584 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1586 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1588 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1589 multi-threaded programs though.
1591 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1593 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1595 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1596 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1599 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1601 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1602 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1603 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1604 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1605 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1608 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1609 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1610 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1612 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1614 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1615 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1617 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1618 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1621 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1622 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1623 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1624 a given linear address.
1626 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1627 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1628 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1630 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1632 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1634 * Changes in documentation.
1636 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1637 Documentation License.
1639 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1642 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1644 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1647 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1648 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1649 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1651 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1653 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1654 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1655 contents of this file.
1659 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1661 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1663 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1665 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1666 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1667 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1668 greater level of detail.
1670 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1672 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1673 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1674 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1677 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1679 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1680 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1681 machines ``out of the box''.
1683 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1684 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1685 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1686 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1687 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1689 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1690 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1691 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1692 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1693 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1695 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1696 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1699 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1702 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1703 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1704 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1705 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1707 * New native configurations
1709 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1710 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1714 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1715 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1716 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1717 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1719 * OBSOLETE configurations
1721 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1722 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1724 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1727 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1728 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1729 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1730 be permanently REMOVED.
1732 * Gould support removed
1734 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1736 * New features for SVR4
1738 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1739 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1740 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1742 * Many C++ enhancements
1744 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1745 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1747 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1749 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1750 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1751 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1752 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1754 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1755 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1757 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1759 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1760 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1761 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1763 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1764 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1766 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1768 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1769 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1770 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1772 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1774 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1775 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1776 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1778 * ``apropos'' command added.
1780 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1781 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1782 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1786 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1787 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1788 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1789 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1790 enabled by configuring with:
1792 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1794 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1796 * New native configurations
1798 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1799 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1800 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1804 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1805 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1806 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1808 * OBSOLETE configurations
1810 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1812 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1813 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1814 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1815 be permanently REMOVED.
1819 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1820 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1821 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1822 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1823 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1824 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1825 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1830 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1832 * set extension-language
1834 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1835 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1836 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1837 set extension-language .c c++
1838 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1839 and their associated languages.
1841 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1843 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1844 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1845 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1849 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1850 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1852 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1853 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1855 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1856 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1857 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1858 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1859 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1860 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1861 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1862 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1864 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1865 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1866 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1867 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1871 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1872 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1873 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1874 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1875 for xdb and dbx commands.
1879 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1880 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1881 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1883 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1884 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1885 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1887 * Debugging across forks
1889 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1894 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1895 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1896 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1898 * GDB remote protocol additions
1900 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1901 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1902 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1903 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1905 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1906 full 64-bit address. The command
1908 set remoteaddresssize 32
1910 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1911 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1914 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1915 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1917 maint packet heythere
1919 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1920 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1923 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1924 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1925 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1927 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1929 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1930 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1931 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1933 * mask-address variable for Mips
1935 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1936 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1937 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1939 * Higher serial baud rates
1941 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1942 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1943 to achieve all of these rates.)
1947 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1948 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1951 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1953 * New native configurations
1955 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1956 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1957 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1958 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1959 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1960 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1961 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1965 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1966 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1967 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1968 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1969 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1970 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1971 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1972 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1973 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1974 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1975 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1977 * New debugging protocols
1979 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1980 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1981 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1982 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1983 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1984 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1988 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1989 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1994 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1995 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1997 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1999 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2000 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2001 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2003 * Live range splitting
2005 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2006 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2007 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2011 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2012 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2016 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2017 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2018 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2023 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2028 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2029 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2030 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2031 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2032 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2033 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2037 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2038 the symbol at the specified address.
2042 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2043 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2044 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2045 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2046 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2050 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2051 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2052 of most MIPS variants.
2056 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2057 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2058 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2062 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2063 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2064 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2065 the possible architectures.
2067 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2069 * New native configurations
2071 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2072 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2073 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2074 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2075 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2076 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2080 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2081 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2082 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2083 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2084 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2086 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2090 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2091 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2092 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2093 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2094 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2098 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2100 * Windows 95/NT native
2102 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2103 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2104 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2105 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2106 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2108 * dont-repeat command
2110 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2111 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2112 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2113 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2115 * Send break instead of ^C
2117 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2118 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2119 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2121 * Remote protocol timeout
2123 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2124 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2125 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2127 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2129 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2130 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2131 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2132 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2133 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2135 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2136 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2137 automatically on hpux10.
2139 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2141 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2143 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2145 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2146 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2147 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2148 every character. The default value is 1050.
2150 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2152 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2153 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2154 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2155 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2156 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2157 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2159 * Speedups for remote debugging
2161 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2162 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2163 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2165 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2167 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2168 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2170 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2172 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2174 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2175 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2177 * Remote targets use caching
2179 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2180 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2181 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2182 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2183 off' turns the the data cache off.
2185 * Remote targets may have threads
2187 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2188 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2189 gdb/remote.c for details.
2193 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2194 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2195 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2196 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2197 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2198 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2199 sequence is something like
2201 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2203 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2207 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2208 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2209 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2210 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2211 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2212 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2213 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2214 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2218 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2219 but does simplify configuration and building.
2223 GDB now supports hpux10.
2225 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2227 * New native configurations
2229 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2230 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2231 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2232 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2236 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2237 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2238 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2239 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2242 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2244 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2245 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2246 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2247 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2248 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2250 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2252 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2253 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2256 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2258 To execute the command use:
2261 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2262 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2263 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2265 * New `if' and `while' commands
2267 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2268 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2269 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2270 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2271 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2272 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2273 if the expression is zero.
2275 * Fortran source language mode
2277 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2278 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2279 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2280 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2283 * Better HPUX support
2285 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2286 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2287 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2288 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2289 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2295 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2296 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2302 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2303 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2306 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2307 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2309 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2311 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2312 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2313 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2314 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2315 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2316 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2318 * New DOS host serial code
2320 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2321 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2324 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2326 * New "complete" command
2328 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2329 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2331 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2333 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2334 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2336 * Breakpoint hit counts
2338 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2339 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2340 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2341 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2342 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2345 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2347 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2348 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2349 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2351 * Shared library breakpoints
2353 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2354 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2356 * Hardware watchpoints
2358 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2359 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2361 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2365 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2366 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2368 * Improved Irix 5 support
2370 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2372 * Improved HPPA support
2374 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2376 * New native configurations
2378 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2379 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2380 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2381 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2385 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2386 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2389 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2391 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2392 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2396 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2397 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2399 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2401 * Irix 5 is now supported
2405 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2406 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2407 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2408 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2409 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2412 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2414 * User visible changes:
2418 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2419 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2420 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2421 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2422 debugging info for the mips target).
2424 * DEC Alpha native support
2426 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2427 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2428 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2429 Alpha-specific notes.
2431 * Preliminary thread implementation
2433 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2435 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2437 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2438 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2441 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2443 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2444 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2445 call methods, ...etc.
2447 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2449 * User visible changes:
2451 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2452 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2453 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2454 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2456 Filename completion now works.
2458 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2459 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2460 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2462 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2463 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2464 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2465 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2466 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2470 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2471 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2474 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2478 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2479 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2480 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2484 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2485 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2486 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2487 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2488 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2492 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2493 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2494 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2496 * New targets supported
2498 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2499 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2500 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2501 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2502 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2504 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2505 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2506 GO32 memory extender.
2508 * New remote protocols
2510 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2512 * New source languages supported
2514 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2515 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2516 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2519 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2521 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2523 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2524 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2525 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2526 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2527 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2528 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2530 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2532 * Faster and better demangling
2534 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2535 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2536 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2537 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2538 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2539 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2542 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2543 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2544 compiler does not actually implement.
2546 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2548 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2549 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2550 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2551 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2552 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2553 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2556 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2557 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2559 * Improved configure script
2561 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2562 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2563 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2564 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2566 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2567 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2568 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2569 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2570 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2571 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2573 * Documentation improvements
2575 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2576 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2577 before submitting changes.
2579 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2580 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2581 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2582 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2583 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2585 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2586 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2587 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2588 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2589 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2590 around this problem.
2594 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2595 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2596 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2599 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2600 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2602 * New native hosts supported
2604 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2605 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2607 * New targets supported
2609 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2611 * New file formats supported
2613 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2614 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2618 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2620 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2621 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2623 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2624 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2625 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2627 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2628 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2630 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2631 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2632 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2635 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2636 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2637 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2638 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2639 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2641 * Internal improvements
2643 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2644 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2646 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2647 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2648 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2649 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2650 shared code that handles any of them.
2652 * New command line options
2654 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2658 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2659 General Public License.
2661 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2663 * Host/native/target split
2665 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2666 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2667 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2668 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2669 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2671 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2672 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2673 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2674 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2675 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2676 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2677 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2679 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2680 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2681 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2683 * New hosts supported
2685 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2686 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2687 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2689 * New targets supported
2691 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2692 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2694 * New native hosts supported
2696 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2697 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2698 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2700 * New file formats supported
2702 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2703 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2704 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2708 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2709 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2710 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2712 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2714 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2715 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2716 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2717 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2721 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2722 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2723 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2725 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2729 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2730 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2733 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2734 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2736 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2737 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2738 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2739 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2740 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2741 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2743 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2744 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2745 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2746 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2750 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2751 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2752 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2753 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2754 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2756 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2757 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2758 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2759 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2763 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2764 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2765 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2766 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2767 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2768 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2769 each instruction being stepped through.
2771 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2772 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2774 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2775 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2776 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2777 processor with a serial port.
2781 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2782 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2783 supported, and what files each one uses.
2787 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2788 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2789 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2790 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2792 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2793 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2794 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2795 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2799 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2800 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2801 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2802 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2803 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2804 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2806 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2809 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2811 * Better support for C++ function names
2813 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2814 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2815 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2816 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2817 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2819 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2820 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2821 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2822 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2823 for the list of formats.
2825 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2827 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2828 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2829 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2830 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2831 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2832 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2835 * New 'maintenance' command
2837 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2838 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2839 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2841 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2842 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2843 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2844 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2845 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2846 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2848 The following commands are new:
2850 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2851 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2852 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2854 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2856 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2857 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2858 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2859 read after argv processing.
2861 * New hosts supported
2863 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2865 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2867 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2868 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2869 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2870 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2871 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2874 * New targets supported
2876 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2878 * More smarts about finding #include files
2880 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2881 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2882 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2883 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2884 the one that contains your sources.
2886 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2887 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2888 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2890 * Interesting infernals change
2892 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2893 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2894 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2895 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2897 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2899 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2900 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2901 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2903 See the ChangeLog for details.
2905 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2907 * New machines supported (host and target)
2909 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2911 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2913 * New malloc package
2915 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2916 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2917 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2918 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2919 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2920 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2924 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2925 'help info proc' for details.
2927 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2929 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2930 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2933 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2935 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2936 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2937 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2938 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2939 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2940 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2942 * Cross byte order fixes
2944 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2945 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2947 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2949 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2950 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2951 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2952 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2953 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2954 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2955 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2956 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2957 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2958 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2960 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2961 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2962 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2963 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2965 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2966 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2967 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2970 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2972 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2973 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2974 shared across multiple host platforms.
2976 * longjmp() handling
2978 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2979 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2980 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2981 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2985 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2986 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2991 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2992 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2993 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2995 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2997 * New machines supported (host and target)
2999 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3001 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3002 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3004 * New machines supported (target)
3006 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3010 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3011 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3012 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3014 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3015 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3016 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3017 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3018 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3021 * New features for SVR4
3023 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3024 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3025 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3027 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3028 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3029 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3031 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3032 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3034 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3036 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3037 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3038 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3039 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3040 same code linked statically.
3044 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3045 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3046 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3047 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3048 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3049 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3053 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3054 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3055 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3058 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3060 * New machines supported (host and target)
3062 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3063 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3064 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3066 * Almost SCO Unix support
3068 We had hoped to support:
3069 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3070 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3071 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3072 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3074 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3076 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3077 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3078 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3079 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3084 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3085 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3086 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3090 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3091 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3092 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3094 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3096 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3097 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3098 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3100 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3101 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3102 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3103 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3106 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3107 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3108 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3109 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3112 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3113 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3116 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3117 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3118 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3121 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3123 * Improved configuration
3125 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3126 Porting BFD is simpler.
3130 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3131 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3132 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3133 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3137 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3139 * New host supported (not target)
3141 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3144 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3146 * Multiple source language support
3148 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3149 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3150 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3151 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3152 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3153 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3157 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3158 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3159 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3160 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3162 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3163 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3164 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3166 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3167 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3171 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3172 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3173 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3174 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3177 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3179 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3180 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3181 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3182 examining core files.
3186 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3189 * New machines supported (host and target)
3191 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3192 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3193 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3195 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3197 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3199 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3201 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3202 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3203 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3205 * New remote interfaces
3211 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3215 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3217 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3218 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3219 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3220 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3221 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3222 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3223 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3224 stub on the target system.
3226 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3228 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3229 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3230 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3232 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3233 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3236 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3238 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3239 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3241 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3242 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3243 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3245 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3246 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3247 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3248 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3250 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3251 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3252 it is already running. Default is ON.
3254 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3255 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3256 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3257 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3260 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3261 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3262 or the value of the environment variable
3265 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3266 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3269 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3270 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3271 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3273 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3274 history expansion will be performed on
3275 command line input. The default is OFF.
3277 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3278 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3279 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3281 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3282 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3283 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3286 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3287 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3288 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3291 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3292 ``set width'' instead.
3294 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3295 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3296 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3297 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3299 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3302 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3305 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3308 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3311 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3313 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3314 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3315 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3319 * Support for Shared Libraries
3321 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3322 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3323 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3324 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3325 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3326 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3327 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3328 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3330 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3331 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3332 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3334 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3339 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3340 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3341 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3342 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3343 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3344 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3346 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3348 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3350 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3351 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3352 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3355 * C++ multiple inheritance
3357 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3360 * C++ exception handling
3362 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3363 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3364 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3367 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3368 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3369 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3371 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3372 current stack frame.
3375 * Minor command changes
3377 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3378 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3379 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3381 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3382 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3383 frames without printing.
3385 * New directory command
3387 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3388 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3389 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3390 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3391 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3393 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3395 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3398 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3399 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3400 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3401 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob