1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.4
8 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
9 only if it doesn't already have a value.
11 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
13 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
15 restart <n> Return the program state to a
16 previously saved state.
18 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
20 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
22 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
23 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
25 info forks List forks of the user program that
26 are available to be debugged.
28 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
29 forks of the user program that are
30 available to be debugged.
32 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
33 that are available to be debugged (and
34 kill the forked process).
36 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
37 that are available to be debugged (and
38 allow the process to continue).
42 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
44 * Improved Windows host support
46 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
47 native console support, and remote communications using either
48 network sockets or serial ports.
52 The ARM rdi-share module.
54 The Netware NLM debug server.
56 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
58 * New native configurations
60 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
61 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
65 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
67 * New command line options
69 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
70 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
71 the child (debugged) program exited with.
72 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
73 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
74 specified multiple times and in conjunction
75 with the --command (-x) option.
77 * Deprecated commands removed
79 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
83 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
84 othernames set arm disassembler
85 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
86 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
87 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
90 * New BSD user-level threads support
92 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
93 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
96 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
97 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
98 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
100 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
101 are not yet supported.
103 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
104 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
106 * REMOVED configurations and files
108 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
109 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
110 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
112 * New "set print array-indexes" command
114 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
115 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
118 * VAX floating point support
120 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
122 * User-defined command support
124 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
125 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
126 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
128 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
130 * New command line option
132 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
135 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
137 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
138 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
139 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
140 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
141 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
143 * Internationalization
145 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
146 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
147 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
151 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
152 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
153 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
155 * New native configurations
157 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
161 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
162 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
164 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
166 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
167 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
168 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
171 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
172 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
173 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
185 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
186 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
188 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
190 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
191 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
192 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
202 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
204 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
206 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
207 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
210 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
212 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
213 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
214 IRIX long double values).
218 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
219 command. This problem has been fixed.
221 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
223 * Fix for ``many threads''
225 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
226 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
229 ptrace: No such process.
230 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
232 This problem has been fixed.
234 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
236 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
239 * New ``start'' command.
241 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
243 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
245 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
246 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
247 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
249 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
250 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
251 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
252 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
253 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
254 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
255 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
256 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
257 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
259 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
261 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
262 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
263 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
264 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
265 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
267 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
268 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
269 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
271 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
273 * New native configurations
275 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
276 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
277 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
278 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
279 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
280 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
281 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
283 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
285 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
286 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
287 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
288 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
289 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
290 work, was also included.
292 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
293 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
303 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
304 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
306 * REMOVED configurations and files
308 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
309 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
310 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
311 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
312 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
313 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
314 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
315 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
316 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
318 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
320 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
322 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
324 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
325 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
326 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
327 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
330 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
332 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
333 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
334 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
335 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
336 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
337 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
340 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
342 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
344 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
345 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
346 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
348 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
350 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
351 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
353 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
355 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
356 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
357 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
359 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
361 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
362 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
364 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
366 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
367 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
368 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
370 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
372 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
373 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
374 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
376 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
378 * Removed --with-mmalloc
380 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
381 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
383 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
385 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
386 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
387 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
388 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
390 * Revised SPARC target
392 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
393 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
394 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
395 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
396 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
400 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
401 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
402 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
405 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
407 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
408 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
411 * C++ nested types and namespaces
413 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
414 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
415 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
416 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
417 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
418 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
419 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
420 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
421 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
423 * New native configurations
425 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
426 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
427 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
428 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
429 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
431 * New debugging protocols
433 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
435 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
437 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
438 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
439 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
441 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
443 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
444 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
445 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
448 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
449 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
450 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
451 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
452 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
453 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
454 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
455 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
456 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
458 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
460 * REMOVED configurations and files
462 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
463 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
464 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
465 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
466 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
467 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
468 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
469 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
470 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
471 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
472 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
473 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
474 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
475 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
476 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
477 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
478 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
480 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
484 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
487 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
489 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
490 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
491 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
494 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
495 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
500 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
501 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
502 remote protocol documentation for details.
504 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
506 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
507 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
508 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
511 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
513 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
514 per-thread variables.
516 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
518 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
519 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
521 * Separate debug info.
523 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
524 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
525 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
526 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
527 and optional debug files.
529 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
531 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
532 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
535 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
536 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
540 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
541 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
542 considered "useable".
544 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
546 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
547 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
550 * GDB supports logging output to a file
552 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
553 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
555 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
557 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
558 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
561 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
563 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
564 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
568 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
569 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
570 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
571 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
572 data, for more informative profiling results.
574 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
576 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
577 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
578 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
580 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
583 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
584 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
585 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
586 in a subsequent -var-update.
588 * New native configurations.
590 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
592 * Multi-arched targets.
594 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
595 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
597 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
599 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
600 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
601 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
604 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
605 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
606 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
607 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
608 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
609 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
610 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
611 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
612 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
613 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
614 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
615 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
617 * REMOVED configurations and files
620 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
621 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
622 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
623 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
624 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
625 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
627 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
628 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
629 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
630 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
631 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
632 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
634 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
636 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
637 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
638 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
639 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
640 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
642 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
644 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
646 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
647 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
648 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
649 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
650 shared libs like mad''.
652 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
654 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
655 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
656 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
657 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
659 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
661 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
662 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
665 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
666 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
668 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
669 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
671 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
672 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
673 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
674 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
676 * Multi-arched targets.
678 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
679 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
681 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
682 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
683 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
687 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
690 * New native configurations
692 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
693 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
694 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
695 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
697 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
699 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
700 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
701 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
704 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
705 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
706 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
707 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
708 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
709 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
710 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
711 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
712 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
713 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
715 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
716 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
720 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
722 * REMOVED configurations and files
724 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
725 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
726 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
727 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
728 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
730 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
732 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
734 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
735 commands. The default is 1024.
737 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
739 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
741 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
743 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
744 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
745 from a file into memory (restore).
747 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
749 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
750 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
751 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
753 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
761 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
762 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
763 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
765 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
766 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
767 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
769 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
770 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
771 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
773 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
774 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
775 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
777 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
779 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
781 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
782 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
783 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
784 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
785 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
786 (notably embedded) targets.
788 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
790 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
791 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
792 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
793 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
795 * New command line option
797 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
799 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
801 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
802 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
803 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
804 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
805 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
806 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
807 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
808 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
809 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
810 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
812 * Changes in ARM configurations.
814 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
815 configuration is fully multi-arch.
817 * New native configurations
819 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
820 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
821 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
822 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
826 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
828 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
830 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
831 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
832 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
835 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
836 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
837 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
838 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
839 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
841 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
843 * REMOVED configurations and files
845 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
847 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
848 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
849 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
850 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
851 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
852 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
853 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
854 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
855 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
856 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
857 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
859 * Changes to command line processing
861 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
862 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
864 * Changes to key bindings
866 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
868 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
870 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
872 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
875 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
877 Numerous documentation fixes.
879 Numerous testsuite fixes.
881 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
883 * New native configurations
885 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
886 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
887 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
888 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
890 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
894 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
896 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
898 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
900 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
901 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
902 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
903 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
904 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
906 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
907 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
908 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
909 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
910 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
911 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
912 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
913 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
915 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
916 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
918 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
919 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
920 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
923 * REMOVED configurations and files
925 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
926 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
928 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
932 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
934 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
935 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
940 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
942 * The MI enabled by default.
944 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
945 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
946 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
947 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
948 which is now deprecated.
950 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
952 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
953 main features are supported:
955 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
957 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
960 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
962 - a Pascal expression parser.
964 However, some important features are not yet supported.
966 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
968 - there are some problems with boolean types;
970 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
971 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
973 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
975 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
977 * Changes in completion.
979 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
980 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
981 users expect at the shell prompt.
983 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
984 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
985 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
986 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
987 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
988 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
989 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
991 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
993 * New platform-independent commands:
995 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
996 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
997 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
999 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1001 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1002 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1003 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1005 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1007 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1008 multi-threaded programs though.
1010 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1012 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1014 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1015 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1018 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1020 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1021 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1022 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1023 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1024 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1027 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1028 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1029 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1031 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1033 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1034 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1036 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1037 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1040 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1041 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1042 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1043 a given linear address.
1045 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1046 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1047 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1049 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1051 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1053 * Changes in documentation.
1055 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1056 Documentation License.
1058 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1061 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1063 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1066 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1067 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1068 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1070 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1072 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1073 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1074 contents of this file.
1078 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1080 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1082 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1084 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1085 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1086 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1087 greater level of detail.
1089 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1091 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1092 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1093 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1096 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1098 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1099 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1100 machines ``out of the box''.
1102 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1103 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1104 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1105 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1106 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1108 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1109 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1110 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1111 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1112 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1114 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1115 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1118 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1121 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1122 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1123 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1124 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1126 * New native configurations
1128 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1129 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1133 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1134 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1135 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1136 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1138 * OBSOLETE configurations
1140 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1141 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1143 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1146 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1147 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1148 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1149 be permanently REMOVED.
1151 * Gould support removed
1153 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1155 * New features for SVR4
1157 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1158 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1159 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1161 * Many C++ enhancements
1163 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1164 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1166 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1168 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1169 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1170 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1171 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1173 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1174 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1176 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1178 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1179 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1180 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1182 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1183 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1185 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1187 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1188 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1189 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1191 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1193 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1194 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1195 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1197 * ``apropos'' command added.
1199 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1200 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1201 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1205 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1206 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1207 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1208 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1209 enabled by configuring with:
1211 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1213 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1215 * New native configurations
1217 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1218 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1219 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1223 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1224 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1225 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1227 * OBSOLETE configurations
1229 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1231 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1232 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1233 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1234 be permanently REMOVED.
1238 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1239 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1240 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1241 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1242 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1243 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1244 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1249 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1251 * set extension-language
1253 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1254 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1255 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1256 set extension-language .c c++
1257 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1258 and their associated languages.
1260 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1262 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1263 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1264 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1268 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1269 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1271 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1272 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1274 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1275 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1276 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1277 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1278 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1279 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1280 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1281 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1283 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1284 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1285 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1286 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1290 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1291 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1292 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1293 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1294 for xdb and dbx commands.
1298 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1299 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1300 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1302 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1303 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1304 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1306 * Debugging across forks
1308 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1313 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1314 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1315 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1317 * GDB remote protocol additions
1319 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1320 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1321 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1322 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1324 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1325 full 64-bit address. The command
1327 set remoteaddresssize 32
1329 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1330 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1333 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1334 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1336 maint packet heythere
1338 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1339 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1342 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1343 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1344 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1346 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1348 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1349 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1350 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1352 * mask-address variable for Mips
1354 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1355 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1356 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1358 * Higher serial baud rates
1360 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1361 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1362 to achieve all of these rates.)
1366 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1367 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1370 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1372 * New native configurations
1374 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1375 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1376 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1377 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1378 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1379 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1380 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1384 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1385 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1386 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1387 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1388 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1389 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1390 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1391 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1392 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1393 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1394 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1396 * New debugging protocols
1398 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1399 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1400 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1401 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1402 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1403 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1407 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1408 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1413 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1414 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1416 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1418 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1419 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1420 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1422 * Live range splitting
1424 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1425 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1426 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1430 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1431 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1435 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1436 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1437 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1442 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1447 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1448 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1449 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1450 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1451 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1452 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1456 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1457 the symbol at the specified address.
1461 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1462 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1463 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1464 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1465 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1469 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1470 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1471 of most MIPS variants.
1475 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1476 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1477 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1481 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1482 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1483 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1484 the possible architectures.
1486 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1488 * New native configurations
1490 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1491 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1492 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1493 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1494 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1495 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1499 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1500 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1501 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1502 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1503 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1505 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1509 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1510 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1511 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1512 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1513 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1517 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1519 * Windows 95/NT native
1521 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1522 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1523 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1524 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1525 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1527 * dont-repeat command
1529 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1530 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1531 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1532 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1534 * Send break instead of ^C
1536 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1537 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1538 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1540 * Remote protocol timeout
1542 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1543 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1544 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1546 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1548 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1549 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1550 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1551 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1552 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1554 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1555 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1556 automatically on hpux10.
1558 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1560 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1562 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1564 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1565 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1566 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1567 every character. The default value is 1050.
1569 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1571 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1572 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1573 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1574 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1575 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1576 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1578 * Speedups for remote debugging
1580 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1581 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1582 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1584 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1586 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1587 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1589 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1591 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1593 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1594 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1596 * Remote targets use caching
1598 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1599 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1600 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1601 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1602 off' turns the the data cache off.
1604 * Remote targets may have threads
1606 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1607 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1608 gdb/remote.c for details.
1612 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1613 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1614 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1615 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1616 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1617 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1618 sequence is something like
1620 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1622 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1626 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1627 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1628 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1629 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1630 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1631 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1632 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1633 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1637 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1638 but does simplify configuration and building.
1642 GDB now supports hpux10.
1644 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1646 * New native configurations
1648 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1649 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1650 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1651 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1655 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1656 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1657 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1658 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1661 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1663 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1664 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1665 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1666 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1667 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1669 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1671 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1672 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1675 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1677 To execute the command use:
1680 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1681 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1682 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1684 * New `if' and `while' commands
1686 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1687 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1688 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1689 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1690 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1691 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1692 if the expression is zero.
1694 * Fortran source language mode
1696 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1697 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1698 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1699 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1702 * Better HPUX support
1704 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1705 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1706 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1707 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1708 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1714 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1715 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1721 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1722 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1725 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1726 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1728 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1730 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1731 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1732 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1733 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1734 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1735 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1737 * New DOS host serial code
1739 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1740 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1743 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1745 * New "complete" command
1747 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1748 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1750 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1752 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1753 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1755 * Breakpoint hit counts
1757 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1758 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1759 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1760 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1761 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1764 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1766 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1767 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1768 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1770 * Shared library breakpoints
1772 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1773 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1775 * Hardware watchpoints
1777 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1778 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1780 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1784 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1785 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1787 * Improved Irix 5 support
1789 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1791 * Improved HPPA support
1793 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1795 * New native configurations
1797 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1798 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1799 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1800 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1804 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1805 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1808 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1810 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1811 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1815 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1816 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1818 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1820 * Irix 5 is now supported
1824 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1825 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1826 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1827 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1828 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1831 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1833 * User visible changes:
1837 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1838 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1839 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1840 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1841 debugging info for the mips target).
1843 * DEC Alpha native support
1845 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1846 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1847 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1848 Alpha-specific notes.
1850 * Preliminary thread implementation
1852 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1854 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1856 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1857 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1860 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1862 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1863 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1864 call methods, ...etc.
1866 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1868 * User visible changes:
1870 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1871 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1872 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1873 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1875 Filename completion now works.
1877 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1878 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1879 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1881 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1882 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1883 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1884 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1885 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1889 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1890 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1893 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1897 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1898 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1899 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1903 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1904 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1905 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1906 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1907 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1911 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1912 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1913 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1915 * New targets supported
1917 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1918 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1919 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1920 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1921 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1923 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1924 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1925 GO32 memory extender.
1927 * New remote protocols
1929 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1931 * New source languages supported
1933 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1934 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1935 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1938 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1940 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1942 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1943 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1944 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1945 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1946 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1947 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1949 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1951 * Faster and better demangling
1953 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1954 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1955 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1956 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1957 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1958 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1961 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1962 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1963 compiler does not actually implement.
1965 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1967 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1968 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1969 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1970 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1971 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1972 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1975 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1976 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1978 * Improved configure script
1980 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1981 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1982 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1983 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1985 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1986 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1987 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1988 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1989 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1990 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1992 * Documentation improvements
1994 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1995 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1996 before submitting changes.
1998 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1999 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2000 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2001 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2002 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2004 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2005 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2006 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2007 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2008 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2009 around this problem.
2013 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2014 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2015 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2018 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2019 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2021 * New native hosts supported
2023 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2024 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2026 * New targets supported
2028 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2030 * New file formats supported
2032 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2033 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2037 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2039 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2040 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2042 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2043 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2044 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2046 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2047 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2049 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2050 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2051 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2054 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2055 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2056 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2057 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2058 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2060 * Internal improvements
2062 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2063 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2065 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2066 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2067 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2068 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2069 shared code that handles any of them.
2071 * New command line options
2073 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2077 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2078 General Public License.
2080 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2082 * Host/native/target split
2084 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2085 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2086 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2087 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2088 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2090 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2091 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2092 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2093 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2094 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2095 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2096 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2098 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2099 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2100 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2102 * New hosts supported
2104 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2105 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2106 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2108 * New targets supported
2110 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2111 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2113 * New native hosts supported
2115 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2116 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2117 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2119 * New file formats supported
2121 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2122 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2123 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2127 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2128 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2129 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2131 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2133 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2134 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2135 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2136 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2140 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2141 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2142 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2144 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2148 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2149 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2152 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2153 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2155 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2156 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2157 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2158 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2159 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2160 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2162 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2163 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2164 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2165 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2169 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2170 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2171 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2172 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2173 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2175 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2176 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2177 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2178 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2182 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2183 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2184 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2185 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2186 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2187 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2188 each instruction being stepped through.
2190 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2191 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2193 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2194 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2195 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2196 processor with a serial port.
2200 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2201 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2202 supported, and what files each one uses.
2206 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2207 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2208 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2209 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2211 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2212 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2213 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2214 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2218 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2219 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2220 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2221 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2222 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2223 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2225 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2228 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2230 * Better support for C++ function names
2232 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2233 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2234 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2235 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2236 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2238 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2239 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2240 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2241 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2242 for the list of formats.
2244 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2246 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2247 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2248 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2249 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2250 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2251 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2254 * New 'maintenance' command
2256 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2257 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2258 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2260 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2261 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2262 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2263 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2264 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2265 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2267 The following commands are new:
2269 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2270 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2271 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2273 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2275 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2276 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2277 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2278 read after argv processing.
2280 * New hosts supported
2282 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2284 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2286 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2287 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2288 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2289 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2290 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2293 * New targets supported
2295 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2297 * More smarts about finding #include files
2299 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2300 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2301 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2302 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2303 the one that contains your sources.
2305 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2306 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2307 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2309 * Interesting infernals change
2311 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2312 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2313 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2314 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2316 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2318 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2319 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2320 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2322 See the ChangeLog for details.
2324 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2326 * New machines supported (host and target)
2328 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2330 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2332 * New malloc package
2334 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2335 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2336 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2337 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2338 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2339 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2343 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2344 'help info proc' for details.
2346 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2348 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2349 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2352 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2354 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2355 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2356 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2357 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2358 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2359 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2361 * Cross byte order fixes
2363 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2364 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2366 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2368 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2369 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2370 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2371 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2372 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2373 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2374 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2375 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2376 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2377 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2379 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2380 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2381 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2382 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2384 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2385 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2386 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2389 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2391 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2392 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2393 shared across multiple host platforms.
2395 * longjmp() handling
2397 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2398 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2399 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2400 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2404 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2405 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2410 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2411 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2412 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2414 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2416 * New machines supported (host and target)
2418 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2420 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2421 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2423 * New machines supported (target)
2425 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2429 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2430 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2431 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2433 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2434 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2435 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2436 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2437 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2440 * New features for SVR4
2442 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2443 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2444 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2446 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2447 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2448 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2450 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2451 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2453 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2455 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2456 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2457 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2458 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2459 same code linked statically.
2463 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2464 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2465 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2466 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2467 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2468 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2472 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2473 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2474 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2477 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2479 * New machines supported (host and target)
2481 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2482 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2483 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2485 * Almost SCO Unix support
2487 We had hoped to support:
2488 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2489 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2490 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2491 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2493 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2495 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2496 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2497 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2498 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2503 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2504 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2505 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2509 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2510 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2511 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2513 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2515 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2516 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2517 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2519 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2520 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2521 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2522 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2525 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2526 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2527 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2528 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2531 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2532 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2535 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2536 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2537 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2540 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2542 * Improved configuration
2544 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2545 Porting BFD is simpler.
2549 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2550 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2551 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2552 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2556 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2558 * New host supported (not target)
2560 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2563 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2565 * Multiple source language support
2567 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2568 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2569 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2570 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2571 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2572 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2576 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2577 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2578 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2579 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2581 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2582 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2583 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2585 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2586 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2590 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2591 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2592 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2593 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2596 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2598 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2599 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2600 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2601 examining core files.
2605 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2608 * New machines supported (host and target)
2610 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2611 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2612 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2614 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2616 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2618 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2620 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2621 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2622 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2624 * New remote interfaces
2630 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2634 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2636 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2637 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2638 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2639 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2640 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2641 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2642 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2643 stub on the target system.
2645 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2647 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2648 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2649 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2651 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2652 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2655 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2657 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2658 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2660 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2661 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2662 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2664 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2665 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2666 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2667 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2669 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2670 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2671 it is already running. Default is ON.
2673 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2674 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2675 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2676 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2679 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2680 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2681 or the value of the environment variable
2684 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2685 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2688 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2689 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2690 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2692 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2693 history expansion will be performed on
2694 command line input. The default is OFF.
2696 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2697 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2698 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2700 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2701 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2702 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2705 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2706 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2707 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2710 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2711 ``set width'' instead.
2713 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2714 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2715 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2716 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2718 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2721 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2724 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2727 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2730 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2732 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2733 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2734 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2738 * Support for Shared Libraries
2740 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2741 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2742 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2743 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2744 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2745 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2746 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2747 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2749 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2750 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2751 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2753 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2758 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2759 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2760 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2761 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2762 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2763 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2765 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2767 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2769 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2770 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2771 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2774 * C++ multiple inheritance
2776 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2779 * C++ exception handling
2781 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2782 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2783 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2786 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2787 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2788 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2790 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2791 current stack frame.
2794 * Minor command changes
2796 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2797 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2798 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2800 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2801 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2802 frames without printing.
2804 * New directory command
2806 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2807 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2808 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2809 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2810 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2812 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2814 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2817 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2818 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2819 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2820 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob