1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.1
6 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
8 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
9 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
10 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
11 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
12 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
13 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
19 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
21 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
22 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
25 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
27 - GDBserver now support tracepoints. The feature is currently
28 supported by the i386-linux and amd64-linux builds.
30 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
31 it understands register description.
33 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
35 * X86 general purpose registers
37 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
38 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
39 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
40 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
41 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
43 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
44 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
45 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
46 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
47 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
48 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
52 save breakpoints <filename>
53 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
54 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
55 definitions, use the `source' command.
57 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
62 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
63 tables, program spaces, and frame's code blocks.
65 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
66 gdb.progspaces, and gdb.current_progspace.
68 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
70 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
71 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
72 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
77 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
79 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
85 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
86 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
87 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
88 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
89 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
93 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
94 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
99 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
100 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
104 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
109 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
112 * Multi-program debugging.
114 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
115 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
116 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
117 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
118 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
119 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
120 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
121 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
123 * New tracing features
125 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
127 ** Trace state variables
129 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
130 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
131 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
132 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
133 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
134 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
135 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
136 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
137 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
138 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
142 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
143 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
144 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
145 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
146 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
147 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
148 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
149 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
150 the regular trace command.
152 ** Disconnected tracing
154 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
155 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
156 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
157 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
158 connection is lost unexpectedly.
162 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
163 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
164 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
165 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
166 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
167 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
170 ** Circular trace buffer
172 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
173 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
174 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
175 not be available for all target agents.
180 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
181 the arguments to be comma-separated.
184 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
185 which only declare a variable are not shown.
188 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
189 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
192 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
193 "set script-extension" (see below).
195 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
197 record save [<FILENAME>]
198 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
199 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
201 record restore <FILENAME>
202 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
203 earlier time, for replay debugging.
205 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
208 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
209 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
215 maint info program-spaces
216 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
218 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
219 show remote interrupt-sequence
220 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
221 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
222 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
223 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
224 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
226 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
227 show remote interrupt-on-connect
228 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
229 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
232 set remotebreak [on | off]
234 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
236 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
237 Create or modify a trace state variable.
240 List trace state variables and their values.
242 delete tvariable $NAME ...
243 Delete one or more trace state variables.
246 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
247 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
249 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
250 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
252 * New expression syntax
254 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
255 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
259 set follow-exec-mode new|same
260 show follow-exec-mode
261 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
262 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
263 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
265 set default-collect EXPR, ...
267 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
268 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
269 such as registers or a critical global variable.
271 set disconnected-tracing
272 show disconnected-tracing
273 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
274 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
277 set circular-trace-buffer
278 show circular-trace-buffer
279 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
280 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
281 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
282 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
284 set script-extension off|soft|strict
285 show script-extension
286 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
287 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
288 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
289 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
291 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
293 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
294 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
295 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
296 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
297 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
298 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
299 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
302 * Python API Improvements
304 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
305 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
306 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
308 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
309 `is_base_class' attribute.
311 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
313 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
314 evaluate an expression.
319 Define a trace state variable.
322 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
325 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
328 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
331 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
335 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
337 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
338 much more reliable. In particular:
339 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
340 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
341 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
342 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
343 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
344 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
345 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
346 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
347 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
348 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
349 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
350 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
351 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
352 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
353 non-threaded programs.
355 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
356 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
357 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
360 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
362 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
363 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
364 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
365 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
366 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
368 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
369 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
370 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
371 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
372 for tracepoint actions.
374 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
375 in hex as well as in symbolic form.
377 * Process record and replay
379 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
380 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
381 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
384 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
385 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
386 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
389 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
390 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
393 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
394 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
395 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
396 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
397 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
398 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
399 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
400 the installation instructions for more information.
402 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
403 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
404 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
405 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
407 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
408 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
410 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
411 now complete on file names.
413 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
414 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
415 For instance, consider:
417 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
418 # struct example variable;
421 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
422 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
424 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
425 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
427 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
428 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
431 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
432 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
433 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
435 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
436 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
437 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
438 and simulator targets may also provide them.
443 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
446 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
447 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
448 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
451 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
452 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
455 Obtains additional operating system information
459 Read or write additional signal information.
461 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
463 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
464 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
465 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
467 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
470 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
471 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
473 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
474 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
475 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
477 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
478 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
480 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
482 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
484 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
485 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
487 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
488 list of section offsets.
490 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
491 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
492 have also been fixed.
494 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
495 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
496 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
498 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
501 template<typename T> class C { };
504 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
506 ptype C<char const *>
508 ptype C<const char *>
511 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
513 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
514 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
516 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
517 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
518 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
520 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
521 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
523 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
526 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
527 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
529 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
530 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
535 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
536 available is determined at configure time.
538 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
540 * Ada tasking support
542 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
546 Print the list of Ada tasks.
548 Print detailed information about task number N.
550 Print the task number of the current task.
552 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
554 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
555 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
557 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
559 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
560 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
561 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
562 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
563 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
564 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
567 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
568 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
571 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
572 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
573 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
574 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
577 * Multi-architecture debugging.
579 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
580 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
581 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
582 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
583 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
585 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
586 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
587 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
588 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
589 --enable-targets configure option.
591 * Non-stop mode debugging.
593 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
594 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
595 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
596 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
597 section in the user manual for more information.
599 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
600 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
601 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
602 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
603 extensions on linux targets.
605 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
607 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
608 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
609 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
610 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
611 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
612 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
613 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
614 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
615 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
617 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
619 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
621 maint set python print-stack
622 maint show python print-stack
623 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
626 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
631 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
635 Show operating system information about processes.
638 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
641 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
644 Detach from inferior number NUM.
647 Kill inferior number NUM.
652 show spu stop-on-load
653 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
655 set spu auto-flush-cache
656 show spu auto-flush-cache
657 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
658 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
660 set sh calling-convention
661 show sh calling-convention
662 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
666 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
668 set disassemble-next-line
669 show disassemble-next-line
670 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
673 set remote noack-packet
674 show remote noack-packet
675 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
676 under "New remote packets."
678 set remote query-attached-packet
679 show remote query-attached-packet
680 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
682 set remote read-siginfo-object
683 show remote read-siginfo-object
684 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
687 set remote write-siginfo-object
688 show remote write-siginfo-object
689 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
692 set remote reverse-continue
693 show remote reverse-continue
694 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
696 set remote reverse-step
697 show remote reverse-step
698 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
700 set displaced-stepping
701 show displaced-stepping
702 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
703 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
704 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
708 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
710 maint set internal-error
711 maint show internal-error
712 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
714 maint set internal-warning
715 maint show internal-warning
716 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
721 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
723 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
724 show multiple-symbols
725 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
726 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
727 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
729 set breakpoint always-inserted
730 show breakpoint always-inserted
731 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
732 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
733 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
735 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
736 show arm fallback-mode
737 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
739 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
740 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
741 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
742 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
744 set disable-randomization
745 show disable-randomization
746 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
747 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
748 multiple debugging sessions.
752 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
757 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
758 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
759 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
760 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
762 set target-wide-charset
763 show target-wide-charset
764 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
765 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
767 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
769 set tcp connect-timeout
770 show tcp connect-timeout
771 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
772 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
773 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
775 set libthread-db-search-path
776 show libthread-db-search-path
777 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
780 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
781 show schedule-multiple
782 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
787 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
788 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
789 affecting correctness.
791 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
792 show interactive-mode
793 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
794 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
795 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
796 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
797 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
802 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
803 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
804 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
808 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
809 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
810 alias for the `fork' command.
813 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
814 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
815 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
818 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
819 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
820 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
824 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
825 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
826 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
829 * New native configurations
831 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
833 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
837 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
838 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
839 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
842 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
843 (mingw32ce) debugging.
849 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
851 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
853 * New native configurations
855 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
856 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
860 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
861 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
863 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
865 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
866 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
867 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
868 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
870 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
871 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
873 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
876 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
877 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
878 and in inlined functions.
880 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
881 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
882 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
884 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
886 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
887 registers on PowerPC targets.
889 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
890 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
892 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
893 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
895 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
896 extended-remote mode.
898 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
899 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
900 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
901 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
903 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
904 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
905 target architectures.
907 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
908 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
909 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
910 stored in two consecutive float registers.
912 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
915 * Improved support for debugging Ada
916 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
918 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
919 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
920 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
921 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
923 - Improved command completion in Ada
926 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
931 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
932 show print frame-arguments
933 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
934 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
939 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
946 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
955 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
958 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
962 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
964 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
966 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
967 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
968 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
970 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
971 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
972 -Bsymbolic linker option.
974 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
975 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
978 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
979 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
981 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
982 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
984 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
986 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
987 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
988 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
990 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
991 automatically displayed as character or string data.
993 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
994 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
997 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
998 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
999 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1001 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1004 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1005 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1006 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1008 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1010 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1012 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1013 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1014 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1016 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1017 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1019 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1020 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1021 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1022 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1023 Windows and SymbianOS).
1025 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1026 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1028 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1029 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1035 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1036 when debugging using remote targets.
1038 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1039 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1040 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1041 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1042 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1043 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1044 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1046 set breakpoint auto-hw
1047 show breakpoint auto-hw
1048 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1049 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1050 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1051 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1052 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1053 including "next" and "finish".
1056 catch exception unhandled
1057 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1060 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1064 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1065 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1066 an alias to "set sysroot".
1069 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1070 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1073 * New native configurations
1075 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1078 unset tdesc filename
1080 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1081 not query the target for its built-in description.
1085 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1086 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1087 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1089 * New remote packets
1092 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1093 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1095 qXfer:features:read:
1096 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1101 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1102 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1104 qXfer:libraries:read:
1105 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1106 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1107 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1108 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1112 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1120 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1121 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1122 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1123 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1125 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1128 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1129 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1138 * Other removed features
1145 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1152 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1157 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1158 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1163 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1164 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1166 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1168 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1169 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1170 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1171 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1173 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1175 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1176 in debugging information.
1180 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1181 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1183 set mips stack-arg-size
1184 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1186 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1188 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1193 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1195 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1196 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1197 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1199 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1200 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1203 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1204 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1206 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1207 stub provides the required support.
1209 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1210 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1215 unset substitute-path
1216 show substitute-path
1217 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1218 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1219 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1220 between compilation and debugging.
1224 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1225 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1226 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1230 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1232 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1233 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1235 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1237 * New remote packets
1240 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1241 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1242 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1243 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1247 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1248 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1250 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1251 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1252 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1257 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1259 * Removed remote packets
1262 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1263 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1265 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1269 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1271 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1275 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1276 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1278 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1280 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1282 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1283 previously saved state.
1285 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1287 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1289 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1290 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1292 info forks List forks of the user program that
1293 are available to be debugged.
1295 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1296 forks of the user program that are
1297 available to be debugged.
1299 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1300 that are available to be debugged (and
1301 kill the forked process).
1303 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1304 that are available to be debugged (and
1305 allow the process to continue).
1309 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1311 * Improved Windows host support
1313 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1314 native console support, and remote communications using either
1315 network sockets or serial ports.
1317 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1319 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1320 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1321 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1322 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1323 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1324 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1328 The ARM rdi-share module.
1330 The Netware NLM debug server.
1332 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1334 * New native configurations
1336 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1337 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1341 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1343 * New command line options
1345 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1346 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1347 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1348 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1349 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1350 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1351 with the --command (-x) option.
1353 * Deprecated commands removed
1355 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1359 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1360 othernames set arm disassembler
1361 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1362 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1363 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1366 * New BSD user-level threads support
1368 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1369 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1372 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1373 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1374 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1376 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1377 are not yet supported.
1379 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1380 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1382 * REMOVED configurations and files
1384 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1385 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1386 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1388 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1390 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1391 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1394 * VAX floating point support
1396 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1398 * User-defined command support
1400 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1401 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1402 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1404 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1406 * New command line option
1408 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1411 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1413 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1414 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1415 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1416 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1417 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1419 * Internationalization
1421 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1422 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1423 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1427 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1428 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1429 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1431 * New native configurations
1433 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1437 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1438 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1440 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1442 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1443 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1444 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1447 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1448 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1449 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1459 powerpc bdm protocol
1461 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1462 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1464 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1466 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1467 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1468 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1469 permanently REMOVED.
1478 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1480 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1482 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1483 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1486 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1488 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1489 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1490 IRIX long double values).
1494 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1495 command. This problem has been fixed.
1497 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1499 * Fix for ``many threads''
1501 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1502 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1505 ptrace: No such process.
1506 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1508 This problem has been fixed.
1510 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1512 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1515 * New ``start'' command.
1517 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1519 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1521 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1522 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1523 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1525 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1526 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1527 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1528 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1529 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1530 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1531 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1532 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1533 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1535 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1537 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1538 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1539 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1540 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1541 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1543 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1544 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1545 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1547 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1549 * New native configurations
1551 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1552 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1553 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1554 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1555 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1556 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1557 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1559 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1561 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1562 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1563 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1564 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1565 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1566 work, was also included.
1568 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1569 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1579 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1580 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1582 * REMOVED configurations and files
1584 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1585 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1586 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1587 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1588 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1589 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1590 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1591 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1592 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1593 sonymips mips-sony-*
1594 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1596 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1598 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1600 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1601 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1602 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1603 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1606 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1608 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1609 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1610 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1611 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1612 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1613 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1616 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1618 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1620 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1621 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1622 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1624 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1626 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1627 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1629 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1631 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1632 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1633 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1635 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1637 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1638 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1640 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1642 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1643 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1644 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1646 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1648 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1649 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1650 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1652 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1654 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1656 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1657 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1659 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1661 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1662 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1663 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1664 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1666 * Revised SPARC target
1668 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1669 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1670 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1671 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1672 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1676 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1677 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1678 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1681 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1683 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1684 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1687 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1689 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1690 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1691 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1692 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1693 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1694 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1695 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1696 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1697 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1699 * New native configurations
1701 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1702 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1703 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1704 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1705 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1707 * New debugging protocols
1709 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1711 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1713 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1714 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1715 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1717 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1719 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1720 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1721 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1722 permanently REMOVED.
1724 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1725 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1726 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1727 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1728 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1729 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1730 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1731 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1732 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1733 sonymips mips-sony-*
1734 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1736 * REMOVED configurations and files
1738 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1739 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1740 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1741 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1742 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1743 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1744 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1745 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1746 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1747 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1748 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1749 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1750 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1751 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1752 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1753 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1754 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1756 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1760 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1761 integrated into GDB.
1763 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1765 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1766 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1767 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1770 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1771 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1772 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1776 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1777 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1778 remote protocol documentation for details.
1780 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1782 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1783 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1784 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1787 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1789 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1790 per-thread variables.
1792 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1794 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1795 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1797 * Separate debug info.
1799 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1800 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1801 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1802 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1803 and optional debug files.
1805 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1807 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1808 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1811 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1812 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1816 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1817 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1818 considered "useable".
1820 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1822 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1823 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1826 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1828 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1829 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1831 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1833 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1834 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1837 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1839 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1840 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1844 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1845 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1846 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1847 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1848 data, for more informative profiling results.
1850 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1852 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1853 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1854 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1856 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1859 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1860 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1861 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1862 in a subsequent -var-update.
1864 * New native configurations.
1866 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1868 * Multi-arched targets.
1870 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1871 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1873 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1875 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1876 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1877 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1878 permanently REMOVED.
1880 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1881 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1882 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1883 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1884 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1885 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1886 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1887 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1888 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1889 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1890 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1891 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1893 * REMOVED configurations and files
1896 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1897 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1898 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1899 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1900 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1901 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1903 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1904 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1905 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1906 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1907 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1908 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1910 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1912 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1913 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1914 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1915 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1916 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1918 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1920 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1922 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1923 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1924 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1925 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1926 shared libs like mad''.
1928 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1930 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1931 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1932 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1933 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1935 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1937 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1938 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1941 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1942 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1944 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1945 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1947 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1948 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1949 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1950 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1952 * Multi-arched targets.
1954 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1955 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1957 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1958 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1959 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1963 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1966 * New native configurations
1968 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1969 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1970 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1971 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1973 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1975 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1976 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1977 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1978 permanently REMOVED.
1980 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1981 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1982 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1983 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1984 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1985 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1986 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1987 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1988 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1989 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1991 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1992 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1994 * OBSOLETE languages
1996 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1998 * REMOVED configurations and files
2000 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2001 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2002 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2003 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2004 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2006 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2008 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2010 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2011 commands. The default is 1024.
2013 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2015 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2017 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2019 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2020 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2021 from a file into memory (restore).
2023 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2025 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2026 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2027 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2029 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2037 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2038 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2039 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2041 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2042 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2043 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2045 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2046 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2047 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2049 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2050 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2051 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2053 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2055 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2057 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2058 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2059 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2060 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2061 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2062 (notably embedded) targets.
2064 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2066 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2067 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2068 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2069 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2071 * New command line option
2073 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2075 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2077 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2078 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2079 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2080 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2081 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2082 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2083 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2084 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2085 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2086 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2088 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2090 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2091 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2093 * New native configurations
2095 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2096 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2097 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2098 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2102 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2104 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2106 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2107 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2108 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2109 permanently REMOVED.
2111 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2112 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2113 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2114 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2115 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2117 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2119 * REMOVED configurations and files
2121 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2123 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2124 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2125 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2126 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2127 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2128 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2129 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2130 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2131 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2132 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2133 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2135 * Changes to command line processing
2137 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2138 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2140 * Changes to key bindings
2142 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2144 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2146 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2148 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2151 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2153 Numerous documentation fixes.
2155 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2157 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2159 * New native configurations
2161 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2162 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2163 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2164 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2165 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2166 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2170 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2172 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2174 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2176 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2177 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2178 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2179 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2180 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2182 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2183 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2184 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2185 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2186 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2187 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2188 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2189 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2191 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2192 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2194 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2195 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2196 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2197 permanently REMOVED.
2199 * REMOVED configurations and files
2201 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2202 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2204 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2208 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2210 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2211 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2216 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2218 * The MI enabled by default.
2220 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2221 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2222 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2223 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2224 which is now deprecated.
2226 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2228 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2229 main features are supported:
2231 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2233 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2236 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2238 - a Pascal expression parser.
2240 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2242 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2244 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2246 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2247 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2249 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2251 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2253 * Changes in completion.
2255 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2256 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2257 users expect at the shell prompt.
2259 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2260 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2261 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2262 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2263 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2264 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2265 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2267 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2269 * New platform-independent commands:
2271 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2272 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2273 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2275 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2277 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2278 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2279 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2281 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2283 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2284 multi-threaded programs though.
2286 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2288 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2290 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2291 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2294 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2296 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2297 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2298 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2299 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2300 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2303 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2304 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2305 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2307 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2309 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2310 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2312 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2313 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2316 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2317 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2318 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2319 a given linear address.
2321 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2322 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2323 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2325 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2327 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2329 * Changes in documentation.
2331 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2332 Documentation License.
2334 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2337 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2339 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2342 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2343 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2344 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2346 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2348 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2349 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2350 contents of this file.
2354 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2356 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2358 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2360 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2361 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2362 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2363 greater level of detail.
2365 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2367 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2368 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2369 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2372 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2374 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2375 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2376 machines ``out of the box''.
2378 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2379 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2380 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2381 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2382 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2384 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2385 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2386 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2387 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2388 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2390 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2391 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2394 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2397 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2398 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2399 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2400 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2402 * New native configurations
2404 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2405 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2409 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2410 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2411 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2412 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2414 * OBSOLETE configurations
2416 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2417 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2419 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2422 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2423 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2424 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2425 be permanently REMOVED.
2427 * Gould support removed
2429 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2431 * New features for SVR4
2433 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2434 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2435 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2437 * Many C++ enhancements
2439 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2440 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2442 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2444 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2445 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2446 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2447 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2449 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2450 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2452 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2454 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2455 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2456 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2458 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2459 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2461 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2463 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2464 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2465 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2467 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2469 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2470 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2471 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2473 * ``apropos'' command added.
2475 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2476 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2477 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2481 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2482 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2483 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2484 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2485 enabled by configuring with:
2487 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2489 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2491 * New native configurations
2493 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2494 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2495 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2499 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2500 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2501 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2503 * OBSOLETE configurations
2505 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2507 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2508 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2509 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2510 be permanently REMOVED.
2514 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2515 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2516 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2517 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2518 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2519 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2520 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2525 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2527 * set extension-language
2529 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2530 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2531 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2532 set extension-language .c c++
2533 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2534 and their associated languages.
2536 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2538 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2539 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2540 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2544 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2545 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2547 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2548 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2550 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2551 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2552 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2553 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2554 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2555 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2556 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2557 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2559 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2560 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2561 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2562 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2566 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2567 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2568 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2569 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2570 for xdb and dbx commands.
2574 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2575 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2576 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2578 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2579 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2580 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2582 * Debugging across forks
2584 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2589 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2590 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2591 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2593 * GDB remote protocol additions
2595 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2596 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2597 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2598 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2600 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2601 full 64-bit address. The command
2603 set remoteaddresssize 32
2605 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2606 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2609 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2610 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2612 maint packet heythere
2614 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2615 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2618 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2619 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2620 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2622 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2624 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2625 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2626 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2628 * mask-address variable for Mips
2630 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2631 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2632 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2634 * Higher serial baud rates
2636 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2637 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2638 to achieve all of these rates.)
2642 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2643 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2646 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2648 * New native configurations
2650 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2651 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2652 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2653 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2654 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2655 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2656 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2660 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2661 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2662 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2663 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2664 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2665 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2666 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2667 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2668 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2669 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2670 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2672 * New debugging protocols
2674 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2675 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2676 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2677 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2678 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2679 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2683 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2684 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2689 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2690 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2692 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2694 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2695 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2696 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2698 * Live range splitting
2700 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2701 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2702 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2706 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2707 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2711 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2712 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2713 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2718 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2723 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2724 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2725 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2726 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2727 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2728 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2732 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2733 the symbol at the specified address.
2737 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2738 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2739 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2740 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2741 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2745 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2746 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2747 of most MIPS variants.
2751 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2752 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2753 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2757 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2758 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2759 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2760 the possible architectures.
2762 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2764 * New native configurations
2766 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2767 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2768 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2769 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2770 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2771 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2775 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2776 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2777 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2778 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2779 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2781 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2785 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2786 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2787 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2788 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2789 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2793 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2795 * Windows 95/NT native
2797 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2798 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2799 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2800 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2801 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2803 * dont-repeat command
2805 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2806 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2807 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2808 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2810 * Send break instead of ^C
2812 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2813 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2814 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2816 * Remote protocol timeout
2818 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2819 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2820 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2822 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2824 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2825 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2826 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2827 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2828 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2830 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2831 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2832 automatically on hpux10.
2834 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2836 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2838 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2840 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2841 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2842 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2843 every character. The default value is 1050.
2845 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2847 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2848 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2849 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2850 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2851 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2852 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2854 * Speedups for remote debugging
2856 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2857 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2858 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2860 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2862 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2863 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2865 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2867 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2869 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2870 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2872 * Remote targets use caching
2874 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2875 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2876 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2877 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2878 off' turns the the data cache off.
2880 * Remote targets may have threads
2882 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2883 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2884 gdb/remote.c for details.
2888 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2889 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2890 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2891 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2892 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2893 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2894 sequence is something like
2896 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2898 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2902 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2903 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2904 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2905 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2906 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2907 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2908 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2909 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2913 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2914 but does simplify configuration and building.
2918 GDB now supports hpux10.
2920 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2922 * New native configurations
2924 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2925 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2926 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2927 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2931 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2932 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2933 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2934 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2937 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2939 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2940 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2941 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2942 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2943 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2945 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2947 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2948 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2951 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2953 To execute the command use:
2956 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2957 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2958 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2960 * New `if' and `while' commands
2962 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2963 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2964 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2965 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2966 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2967 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2968 if the expression is zero.
2970 * Fortran source language mode
2972 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2973 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2974 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2975 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2978 * Better HPUX support
2980 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2981 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2982 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2983 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2984 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2990 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2991 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2997 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2998 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3001 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3002 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3004 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3006 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3007 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3008 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3009 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3010 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3011 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3013 * New DOS host serial code
3015 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3016 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3019 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3021 * New "complete" command
3023 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3024 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3026 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3028 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3029 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3031 * Breakpoint hit counts
3033 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3034 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3035 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3036 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3037 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3040 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3042 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3043 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3044 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3046 * Shared library breakpoints
3048 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3049 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3051 * Hardware watchpoints
3053 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3054 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3056 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3060 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3061 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3063 * Improved Irix 5 support
3065 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3067 * Improved HPPA support
3069 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3071 * New native configurations
3073 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3074 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3075 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3076 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3080 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3081 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3084 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3086 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3087 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3091 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3092 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3094 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3096 * Irix 5 is now supported
3100 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3101 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3102 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3103 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3104 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3107 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3109 * User visible changes:
3113 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3114 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3115 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3116 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3117 debugging info for the mips target).
3119 * DEC Alpha native support
3121 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3122 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3123 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3124 Alpha-specific notes.
3126 * Preliminary thread implementation
3128 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3130 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3132 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3133 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3136 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3138 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3139 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3140 call methods, ...etc.
3142 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3144 * User visible changes:
3146 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3147 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3148 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3149 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3151 Filename completion now works.
3153 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3154 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3155 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3157 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3158 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3159 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3160 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3161 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3165 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3166 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3169 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3173 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3174 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3175 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3179 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3180 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3181 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3182 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3183 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3187 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3188 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3189 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3191 * New targets supported
3193 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3194 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3195 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3196 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3197 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3199 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3200 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3201 GO32 memory extender.
3203 * New remote protocols
3205 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3207 * New source languages supported
3209 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3210 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3211 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3214 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3216 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3218 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3219 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3220 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3221 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3222 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3223 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3225 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3227 * Faster and better demangling
3229 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3230 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3231 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3232 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3233 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3234 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3237 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3238 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3239 compiler does not actually implement.
3241 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3243 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3244 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3245 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3246 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3247 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3248 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3251 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3252 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3254 * Improved configure script
3256 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3257 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3258 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3259 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3261 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3262 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3263 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3264 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3265 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3266 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3268 * Documentation improvements
3270 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3271 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3272 before submitting changes.
3274 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3275 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3276 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3277 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3278 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3280 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3281 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3282 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3283 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3284 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3285 around this problem.
3289 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3290 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3291 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3294 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3295 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3297 * New native hosts supported
3299 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3300 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3302 * New targets supported
3304 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3306 * New file formats supported
3308 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3309 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3313 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3315 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3316 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3318 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3319 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3320 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3322 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3323 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3325 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3326 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3327 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3330 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3331 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3332 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3333 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3334 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3336 * Internal improvements
3338 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3339 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3341 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3342 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3343 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3344 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3345 shared code that handles any of them.
3347 * New command line options
3349 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3353 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3354 General Public License.
3356 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3358 * Host/native/target split
3360 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3361 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3362 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3363 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3364 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3366 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3367 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3368 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3369 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3370 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3371 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3372 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3374 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3375 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3376 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3378 * New hosts supported
3380 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3381 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3382 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3384 * New targets supported
3386 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3387 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3389 * New native hosts supported
3391 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3392 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3393 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3395 * New file formats supported
3397 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3398 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3399 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3403 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3404 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3405 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3407 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3409 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3410 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3411 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3412 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3416 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3417 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3418 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3420 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3424 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3425 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3428 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3429 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3431 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3432 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3433 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3434 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3435 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3436 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3438 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3439 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3440 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3441 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3445 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3446 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3447 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3448 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3449 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3451 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3452 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3453 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3454 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3458 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3459 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3460 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3461 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3462 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3463 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3464 each instruction being stepped through.
3466 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3467 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3469 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3470 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3471 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3472 processor with a serial port.
3476 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3477 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3478 supported, and what files each one uses.
3482 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3483 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3484 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3485 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3487 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3488 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3489 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3490 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3494 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3495 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3496 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3497 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3498 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3499 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3501 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3504 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3506 * Better support for C++ function names
3508 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3509 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3510 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3511 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3512 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3514 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3515 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3516 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3517 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3518 for the list of formats.
3520 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3522 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3523 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3524 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3525 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3526 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3527 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3530 * New 'maintenance' command
3532 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3533 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3534 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3536 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3537 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3538 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3539 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3540 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3541 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3543 The following commands are new:
3545 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3546 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3547 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3549 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3551 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3552 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3553 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3554 read after argv processing.
3556 * New hosts supported
3558 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3560 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3562 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3563 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3564 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3565 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3566 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3569 * New targets supported
3571 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3573 * More smarts about finding #include files
3575 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3576 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3577 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3578 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3579 the one that contains your sources.
3581 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3582 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3583 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3585 * Interesting infernals change
3587 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3588 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3589 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3590 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3592 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3594 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3595 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3596 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3598 See the ChangeLog for details.
3600 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3602 * New machines supported (host and target)
3604 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3606 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3608 * New malloc package
3610 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3611 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3612 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3613 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3614 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3615 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3619 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3620 'help info proc' for details.
3622 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3624 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3625 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3628 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3630 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3631 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3632 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3633 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3634 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3635 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3637 * Cross byte order fixes
3639 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3640 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3642 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3644 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3645 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3646 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3647 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3648 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3649 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3650 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3651 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3652 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3653 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3655 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3656 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3657 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3658 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3660 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3661 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3662 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3665 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3667 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3668 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3669 shared across multiple host platforms.
3671 * longjmp() handling
3673 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3674 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3675 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3676 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3680 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3681 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3686 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3687 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3688 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3690 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3692 * New machines supported (host and target)
3694 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3696 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3697 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3699 * New machines supported (target)
3701 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3705 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3706 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3707 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3709 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3710 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3711 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3712 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3713 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3716 * New features for SVR4
3718 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3719 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3720 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3722 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3723 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3724 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3726 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3727 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3729 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3731 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3732 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3733 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3734 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3735 same code linked statically.
3739 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3740 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3741 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3742 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3743 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3744 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3748 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3749 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3750 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3753 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3755 * New machines supported (host and target)
3757 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3758 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3759 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3761 * Almost SCO Unix support
3763 We had hoped to support:
3764 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3765 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3766 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3767 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3769 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3771 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3772 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3773 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3774 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3779 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3780 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3781 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3785 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3786 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3787 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3789 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3791 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3792 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3793 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3795 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3796 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3797 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3798 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3801 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3802 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3803 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3804 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3807 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3808 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3811 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3812 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3813 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3816 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3818 * Improved configuration
3820 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3821 Porting BFD is simpler.
3825 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3826 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3827 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3828 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3832 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3834 * New host supported (not target)
3836 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3839 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3841 * Multiple source language support
3843 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3844 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3845 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3846 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3847 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3848 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3852 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3853 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3854 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3855 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3857 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3858 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3859 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3861 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3862 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3866 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3867 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3868 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3869 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3872 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3874 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3875 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3876 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3877 examining core files.
3881 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3884 * New machines supported (host and target)
3886 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3887 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3888 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3890 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3892 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3894 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3896 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3897 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3898 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3900 * New remote interfaces
3906 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3910 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3912 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3913 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3914 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3915 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3916 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3917 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3918 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3919 stub on the target system.
3921 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3923 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3924 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3925 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3927 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3928 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3931 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3933 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3934 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3936 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3937 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3938 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3940 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3941 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3942 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3943 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3945 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3946 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3947 it is already running. Default is ON.
3949 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3950 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3951 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3952 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3955 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3956 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3957 or the value of the environment variable
3960 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3961 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3964 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3965 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3966 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3968 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3969 history expansion will be performed on
3970 command line input. The default is OFF.
3972 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3973 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3974 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3976 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3977 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3978 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3981 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3982 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3983 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3986 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3987 ``set width'' instead.
3989 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3990 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3991 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3992 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3994 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3997 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4000 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4003 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4006 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4008 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4009 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4010 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4014 * Support for Shared Libraries
4016 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4017 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4018 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4019 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4020 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4021 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4022 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4023 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4025 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4026 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4027 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4029 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4034 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4035 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4036 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4037 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4038 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4039 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4041 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4043 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4045 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4046 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4047 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4050 * C++ multiple inheritance
4052 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4055 * C++ exception handling
4057 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4058 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4059 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4062 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4063 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4064 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4066 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4067 current stack frame.
4070 * Minor command changes
4072 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4073 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4074 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4076 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4077 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4078 frames without printing.
4080 * New directory command
4082 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4083 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4084 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4085 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4086 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4088 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4090 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4093 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4094 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4095 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4096 where the program that you are debugging will run.