1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.3:
6 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
8 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
9 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
10 "mi1", can be enabled by sepcifying the option "-i=mi1".
12 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
15 * REMOVED configurations and files
19 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
21 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
22 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
23 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
24 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
25 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
27 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
29 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
31 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
32 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
33 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
34 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
36 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
38 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
39 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
42 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
43 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
45 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
46 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
48 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
49 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
50 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
51 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
53 * Multi-arched targets.
55 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
56 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
58 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
59 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
60 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
64 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
67 * New native configurations
69 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
70 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
71 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
72 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
74 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
76 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
77 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
78 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
81 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
82 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
83 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
84 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
85 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
86 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
87 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
88 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
89 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
90 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
92 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
93 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
97 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
99 * REMOVED configurations and files
101 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
102 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
103 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
104 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
105 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
107 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
109 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
111 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
112 commands. The default is 1024.
114 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
116 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
118 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
120 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
121 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
122 from a file into memory (restore).
124 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
126 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
127 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
128 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
130 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
138 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
139 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
140 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
142 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
143 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
144 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
146 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
147 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
148 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
150 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
151 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
152 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
154 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
156 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
158 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
159 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
160 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
161 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
162 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
163 (notably embedded) targets.
165 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
167 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
168 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
169 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
170 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
172 * New command line option
174 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
176 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
178 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
179 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
180 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
181 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
182 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
183 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
184 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
185 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
186 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
187 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
189 * Changes in ARM configurations.
191 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
192 configuration is fully multi-arch.
194 * New native configurations
196 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
197 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
198 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
199 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
203 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
205 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
207 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
208 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
209 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
212 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
213 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
214 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
215 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
216 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
218 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
220 * REMOVED configurations and files
222 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
224 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
225 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
226 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
227 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
228 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
229 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
230 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
231 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
232 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
233 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
234 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
236 * Changes to command line processing
238 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
239 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
241 * Changes to key bindings
243 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
245 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
247 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
249 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
252 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
254 Numerous documentation fixes.
256 Numerous testsuite fixes.
258 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
260 * New native configurations
262 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
263 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
264 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
265 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
267 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
271 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
273 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
275 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
277 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
278 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
279 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
280 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
281 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
283 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
284 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
285 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
286 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
287 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
288 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
289 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
290 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
292 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
293 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
295 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
296 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
297 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
300 * REMOVED configurations and files
302 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
303 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
305 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
309 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
311 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
312 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
317 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
319 * The MI enabled by default.
321 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
322 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
323 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
324 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
325 which is now deprecated.
327 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
329 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
330 main features are supported:
332 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
334 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
337 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
339 - a Pascal expression parser.
341 However, some important features are not yet supported.
343 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
345 - there are some problems with boolean types;
347 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
348 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
350 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
352 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
354 * Changes in completion.
356 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
357 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
358 users expect at the shell prompt.
360 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
361 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
362 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
363 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
364 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
365 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
366 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
368 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
370 * New platform-independent commands:
372 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
373 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
374 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
376 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
378 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
379 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
380 many threads as your system allows you to have.
382 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
384 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
385 multi-threaded programs though.
387 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
389 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
391 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
392 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
395 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
397 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
398 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
399 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
400 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
401 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
404 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
405 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
406 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
408 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
410 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
411 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
413 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
414 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
417 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
418 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
419 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
420 a given linear address.
422 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
423 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
424 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
426 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
428 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
430 * Changes in documentation.
432 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
433 Documentation License.
435 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
438 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
440 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
443 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
444 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
445 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
447 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
449 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
450 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
451 contents of this file.
455 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
457 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
459 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
461 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
462 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
463 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
464 greater level of detail.
466 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
468 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
469 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
470 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
473 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
475 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
476 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
477 machines ``out of the box''.
479 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
480 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
481 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
482 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
483 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
485 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
486 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
487 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
488 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
489 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
491 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
492 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
495 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
498 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
499 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
500 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
501 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
503 * New native configurations
505 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
506 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
510 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
511 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
512 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
513 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
515 * OBSOLETE configurations
517 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
518 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
520 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
523 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
524 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
525 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
526 be permanently REMOVED.
528 * Gould support removed
530 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
532 * New features for SVR4
534 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
535 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
536 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
538 * Many C++ enhancements
540 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
541 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
543 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
545 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
546 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
547 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
548 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
550 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
551 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
553 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
555 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
556 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
557 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
559 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
560 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
562 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
564 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
565 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
566 include ``set remote P-packet''.
568 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
570 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
571 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
572 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
574 * ``apropos'' command added.
576 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
577 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
578 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
582 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
583 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
584 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
585 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
586 enabled by configuring with:
588 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
590 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
592 * New native configurations
594 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
595 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
596 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
600 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
601 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
602 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
604 * OBSOLETE configurations
606 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
608 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
609 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
610 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
611 be permanently REMOVED.
615 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
616 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
617 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
618 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
619 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
620 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
621 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
626 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
628 * set extension-language
630 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
631 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
632 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
633 set extension-language .c c++
634 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
635 and their associated languages.
637 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
639 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
640 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
641 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
645 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
646 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
648 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
649 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
651 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
652 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
653 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
654 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
655 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
656 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
657 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
658 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
660 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
661 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
662 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
663 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
667 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
668 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
669 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
670 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
671 for xdb and dbx commands.
675 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
676 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
677 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
679 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
680 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
681 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
683 * Debugging across forks
685 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
690 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
691 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
692 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
694 * GDB remote protocol additions
696 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
697 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
698 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
699 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
701 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
702 full 64-bit address. The command
704 set remoteaddresssize 32
706 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
707 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
710 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
711 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
713 maint packet heythere
715 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
716 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
719 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
720 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
721 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
723 * Tracing can collect general expressions
725 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
726 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
727 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
729 * mask-address variable for Mips
731 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
732 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
733 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
735 * Higher serial baud rates
737 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
738 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
739 to achieve all of these rates.)
743 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
744 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
747 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
749 * New native configurations
751 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
752 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
753 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
754 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
755 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
756 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
757 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
761 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
762 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
763 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
764 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
765 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
766 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
767 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
768 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
769 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
770 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
771 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
773 * New debugging protocols
775 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
776 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
777 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
778 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
779 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
780 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
784 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
785 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
790 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
791 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
793 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
795 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
796 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
797 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
799 * Live range splitting
801 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
802 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
803 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
807 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
808 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
812 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
813 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
814 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
819 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
824 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
825 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
826 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
827 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
828 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
829 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
833 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
834 the symbol at the specified address.
838 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
839 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
840 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
841 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
842 file tracepoint.c for more details.
846 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
847 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
848 of most MIPS variants.
852 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
853 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
854 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
858 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
859 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
860 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
861 the possible architectures.
863 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
865 * New native configurations
867 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
868 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
869 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
870 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
871 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
872 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
876 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
877 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
878 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
879 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
880 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
882 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
886 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
887 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
888 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
889 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
890 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
894 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
896 * Windows 95/NT native
898 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
899 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
900 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
901 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
902 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
904 * dont-repeat command
906 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
907 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
908 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
909 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
911 * Send break instead of ^C
913 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
914 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
915 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
917 * Remote protocol timeout
919 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
920 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
921 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
923 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
925 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
926 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
927 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
928 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
929 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
931 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
932 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
933 automatically on hpux10.
935 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
937 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
939 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
941 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
942 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
943 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
944 every character. The default value is 1050.
946 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
948 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
949 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
950 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
951 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
952 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
953 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
955 * Speedups for remote debugging
957 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
958 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
959 and more efficient S-record downloading.
961 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
963 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
964 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
966 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
970 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
971 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
973 * Remote targets use caching
975 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
976 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
977 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
978 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
979 off' turns the the data cache off.
981 * Remote targets may have threads
983 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
984 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
985 gdb/remote.c for details.
989 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
990 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
991 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
992 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
993 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
994 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
995 sequence is something like
997 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
999 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1003 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1004 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1005 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1006 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1007 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1008 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1009 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1010 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1014 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1015 but does simplify configuration and building.
1019 GDB now supports hpux10.
1021 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1023 * New native configurations
1025 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1026 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1027 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1028 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1032 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1033 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1034 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1035 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1038 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1040 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1041 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1042 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1043 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1044 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1046 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1048 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1049 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1052 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1054 To execute the command use:
1057 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1058 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1059 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1061 * New `if' and `while' commands
1063 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1064 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1065 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1066 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1067 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1068 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1069 if the expression is zero.
1071 * Fortran source language mode
1073 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1074 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1075 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1076 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1079 * Better HPUX support
1081 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1082 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1083 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1084 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1085 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1091 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1092 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1098 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1099 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1102 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1103 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1105 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1107 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1108 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1109 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1110 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1111 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1112 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1114 * New DOS host serial code
1116 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1117 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1120 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1122 * New "complete" command
1124 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1125 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1127 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1129 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1130 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1132 * Breakpoint hit counts
1134 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1135 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1136 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1137 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1138 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1141 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1143 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1144 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1145 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1147 * Shared library breakpoints
1149 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1150 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1152 * Hardware watchpoints
1154 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1155 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1157 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1161 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1162 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1164 * Improved Irix 5 support
1166 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1168 * Improved HPPA support
1170 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1172 * New native configurations
1174 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1175 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1176 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1177 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1181 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1182 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1185 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1187 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1188 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1192 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1193 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1195 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1197 * Irix 5 is now supported
1201 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1202 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1203 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1204 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1205 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1208 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1210 * User visible changes:
1214 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1215 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1216 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1217 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1218 debugging info for the mips target).
1220 * DEC Alpha native support
1222 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1223 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1224 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1225 Alpha-specific notes.
1227 * Preliminary thread implementation
1229 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1231 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1233 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1234 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1237 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1239 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1240 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1241 call methods, ...etc.
1243 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1245 * User visible changes:
1247 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1248 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1249 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1250 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1252 Filename completion now works.
1254 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1255 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1256 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1258 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1259 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1260 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1261 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1262 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1266 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1267 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1270 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1274 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1275 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1276 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1280 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1281 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1282 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1283 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1284 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1288 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1289 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1290 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1292 * New targets supported
1294 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1295 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1296 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1297 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1298 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1300 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1301 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1302 GO32 memory extender.
1304 * New remote protocols
1306 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1308 * New source languages supported
1310 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1311 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1312 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1315 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1317 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1319 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1320 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1321 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1322 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1323 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1324 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1326 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1328 * Faster and better demangling
1330 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1331 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1332 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1333 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1334 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1335 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1338 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1339 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1340 compiler does not actually implement.
1342 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1344 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1345 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1346 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1347 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1348 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1349 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1352 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1353 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1355 * Improved configure script
1357 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1358 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1359 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1360 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1362 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1363 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1364 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1365 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1366 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1367 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1369 * Documentation improvements
1371 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1372 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1373 before submitting changes.
1375 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1376 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1377 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1378 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1379 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1381 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1382 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1383 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1384 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1385 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1386 around this problem.
1390 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1391 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1392 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1395 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1396 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1398 * New native hosts supported
1400 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1401 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1403 * New targets supported
1405 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1407 * New file formats supported
1409 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1410 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1414 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1416 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1417 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1419 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1420 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1421 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1423 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1424 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1426 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1427 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1428 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1431 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1432 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1433 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1434 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1435 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1437 * Internal improvements
1439 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1440 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1442 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1443 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1444 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1445 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1446 shared code that handles any of them.
1448 * New command line options
1450 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1454 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1455 General Public License.
1457 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1459 * Host/native/target split
1461 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1462 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1463 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1464 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1465 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1467 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1468 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1469 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1470 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1471 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1472 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1473 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1475 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1476 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1477 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1479 * New hosts supported
1481 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1482 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1483 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1485 * New targets supported
1487 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1488 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1490 * New native hosts supported
1492 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1493 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1494 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1496 * New file formats supported
1498 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1499 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1500 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1504 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1505 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1506 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1508 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1510 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1511 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1512 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1513 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1517 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1518 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1519 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1521 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1525 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1526 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1529 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1530 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1532 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1533 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1534 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1535 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1536 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1537 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1539 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1540 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1541 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1542 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1546 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1547 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1548 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1549 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1550 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1552 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1553 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1554 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1555 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1559 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1560 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1561 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1562 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1563 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1564 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1565 each instruction being stepped through.
1567 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1568 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1570 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1571 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1572 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1573 processor with a serial port.
1577 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1578 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1579 supported, and what files each one uses.
1583 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1584 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1585 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1586 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1588 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1589 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1590 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1591 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1595 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1596 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1597 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1598 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1599 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1600 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1602 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1605 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1607 * Better support for C++ function names
1609 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1610 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1611 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1612 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1613 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1615 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1616 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1617 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1618 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1619 for the list of formats.
1621 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1623 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1624 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1625 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1626 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1627 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1628 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1631 * New 'maintenance' command
1633 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1634 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1635 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1637 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1638 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1639 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1640 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1641 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1642 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1644 The following commands are new:
1646 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1647 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1648 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1650 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1652 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1653 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1654 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1655 read after argv processing.
1657 * New hosts supported
1659 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1661 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1663 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1664 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1665 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1666 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1667 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1670 * New targets supported
1672 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1674 * More smarts about finding #include files
1676 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1677 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1678 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1679 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1680 the one that contains your sources.
1682 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1683 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1684 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1686 * Interesting infernals change
1688 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1689 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1690 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1691 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1693 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1695 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1696 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1697 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1699 See the ChangeLog for details.
1701 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1703 * New machines supported (host and target)
1705 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1707 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1709 * New malloc package
1711 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1712 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1713 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1714 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1715 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1716 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1720 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1721 'help info proc' for details.
1723 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1725 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1726 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1729 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1731 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1732 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1733 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1734 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1735 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1736 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1738 * Cross byte order fixes
1740 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1741 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1743 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1745 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1746 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1747 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1748 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1749 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1750 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1751 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1752 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1753 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1754 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1756 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1757 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1758 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1759 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1761 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1762 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1763 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1766 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1768 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1769 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1770 shared across multiple host platforms.
1772 * longjmp() handling
1774 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1775 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1776 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1777 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1781 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1782 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1787 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1788 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1789 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1791 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1793 * New machines supported (host and target)
1795 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1797 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1798 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1800 * New machines supported (target)
1802 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1806 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1807 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1808 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1810 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1811 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1812 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1813 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1814 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1817 * New features for SVR4
1819 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1820 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1821 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1823 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1824 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1825 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1827 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1828 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1830 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1832 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1833 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1834 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1835 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1836 same code linked statically.
1840 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1841 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1842 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1843 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1844 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1845 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1849 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1850 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1851 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1854 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1856 * New machines supported (host and target)
1858 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1859 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1860 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1862 * Almost SCO Unix support
1864 We had hoped to support:
1865 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1866 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1867 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1868 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1870 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1872 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1873 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1874 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1875 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1880 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1881 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1882 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1886 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1887 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1888 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1890 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1892 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1893 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1894 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1896 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1897 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1898 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1899 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1902 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1903 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1904 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1905 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1908 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1909 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1912 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1913 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1914 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1917 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1919 * Improved configuration
1921 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1922 Porting BFD is simpler.
1926 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1927 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1928 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1929 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1933 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1935 * New host supported (not target)
1937 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1940 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1942 * Multiple source language support
1944 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1945 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1946 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1947 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1948 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1949 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1953 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1954 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1955 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1956 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1958 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1959 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1960 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1962 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1963 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1967 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1968 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1969 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1970 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1973 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1975 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1976 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1977 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1978 examining core files.
1982 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1985 * New machines supported (host and target)
1987 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1988 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1989 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1991 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1993 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1995 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1997 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1998 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1999 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2001 * New remote interfaces
2007 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2011 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2013 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2014 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2015 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2016 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2017 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2018 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2019 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2020 stub on the target system.
2022 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2024 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2025 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2026 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2028 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2029 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2032 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2034 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2035 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2037 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2038 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2039 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2041 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2042 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2043 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2044 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2046 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2047 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2048 it is already running. Default is ON.
2050 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2051 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2052 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2053 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2056 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2057 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2058 or the value of the environment variable
2061 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2062 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2065 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2066 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2067 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2069 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2070 history expansion will be performed on
2071 command line input. The default is OFF.
2073 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2074 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2075 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2077 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2078 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2079 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2082 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2083 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2084 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2087 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2088 ``set width'' instead.
2090 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2091 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2092 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2093 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2095 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2098 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2101 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2104 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2107 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2109 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2110 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2111 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2115 * Support for Shared Libraries
2117 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2118 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2119 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2120 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2121 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2122 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2123 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2124 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2126 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2127 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2128 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2130 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2135 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2136 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2137 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2138 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2139 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2140 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2142 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2144 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2146 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2147 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2148 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2151 * C++ multiple inheritance
2153 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2156 * C++ exception handling
2158 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2159 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2160 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2163 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2164 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2165 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2167 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2168 current stack frame.
2171 * Minor command changes
2173 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2174 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2175 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2177 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2178 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2179 frames without printing.
2181 * New directory command
2183 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2184 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2185 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2186 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2187 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2189 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2191 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2194 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2195 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2196 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2197 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob