Fix s390 GNU/Linux build
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.1
5
6 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
7 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
8
9 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
10 files created on FreeBSD systems.
11
12 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
13 alignof.
14
15 * New commands
16
17 set debug fbsd-nat
18 show debug fbsd-nat
19 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
20
21 set|show varsize-limit
22 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
23 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
24 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
25
26 set|show record btrace cpu
27 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
28 branch trace decode.
29
30 * Python API
31
32 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
33
34 * New targets
35
36 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
37
38 * Removed targets and native configurations
39
40 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
41 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
42 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
43 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
44
45 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
46
47 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
48 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
49 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
50
51 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
52 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
53
54 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
55 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
56 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
57 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
58 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
59
60 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
61 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
62 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
63 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
64
65 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
66 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
67
68 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
69 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
70 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
71
72 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
73 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
74 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
75
76 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
77 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
78 environment" command.
79
80 * Completion improvements
81
82 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
83 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
84 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
85 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
86 correctly:
87
88 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
89 (gdb) b function(int)
90
91 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
92 C++ anonymous namespaces:
93
94 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
95 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
96 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
97 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
98
99 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
100 completion support, that better understands what you're
101 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
102 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
103 setting a breakpoint.
104
105 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
106
107 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
108
109 * New command line options (gcore)
110
111 -a
112 Dump all memory mappings.
113
114 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
115
116 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
117 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
118 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
119
120 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
121
122 A::B::func()
123 B::func()
124
125 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
126 on both symbols.
127
128 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
129 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
130 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
131 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
132 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
133 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
134 a breakpoint from Python.
135
136 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
137
138 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
139 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
140 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
141
142 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
143
144 function[abi:cxx11](int)
145 ^^^^^^^^^^^
146
147 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
148 no tag, like:
149
150 (gdb) b function(int)
151
152 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
153
154 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
155
156 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
157
158 * Python Scripting
159
160 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
161 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
162 description of these.
163
164 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
165 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
166 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
167
168 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
169 manual for a further description of this feature.
170
171
172 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
173
174 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
175 specified initial working directory.
176
177 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
178 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
179
180 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
181 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
182
183 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
184 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
185
186 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
187 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
188 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
189 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
190 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
191
192 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
193 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
194 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
195
196 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
197 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
198 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
199 in the *stopped notification.
200
201 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
202 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
203
204 * New remote packets
205
206 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
207 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
208 the inferior when starting it.
209
210 QEnvironmentUnset
211 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
212 before starting the remote inferior.
213
214 QEnvironmentReset
215 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
216 user-set environment variables should be unset).
217
218 QStartupWithShell
219 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
220
221 QSetWorkingDir
222 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
223 working directory.
224
225 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
226 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
227
228 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
229 filter the tests to be run.
230
231 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
232 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
233
234 * New commands
235
236 set|show cwd
237 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
238
239 set|show compile-gcc
240 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
241 with the 'compile' commands.
242
243 set debug separate-debug-file
244 show debug separate-debug-file
245 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
246
247 set dump-excluded-mappings
248 show dump-excluded-mappings
249 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
250 dumped when generating a core file.
251
252 maint info selftests
253 List the registered selftests.
254
255 starti
256 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
257
258 set|show debug or1k
259 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
260
261 set|show print type nested-type-limit
262 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
263 type printer will show.
264
265 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
266 `o' for nexti.
267
268 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
269
270 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
271 'int'.
272
273 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
274 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
275 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
276 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
277
278 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
279 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
280 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
281 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
282 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
283 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
284
285 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
286 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
287 unless you tell it the variable's type:
288
289 (gdb) p var
290 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
291 (gdb) p (float) var
292 $3 = 3.14
293
294 * New native configurations
295
296 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
297 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
298
299 * New targets
300
301 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
302 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
303 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
304
305 * Removed targets and native configurations
306
307 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
308
309 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
310
311 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
312 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
313 available in future Intel CPUs.
314
315 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
316
317 * Python Scripting
318
319 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
320 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
321
322 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
323 instructions.
324
325 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
326
327 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
328
329 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
330 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
331 removed.
332
333 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
334
335 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
336 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
337
338 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
339
340 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
341 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
342 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
343 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
344 features.
345
346 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
347
348 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
349 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
350 debugger.
351
352 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
353
354 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
355 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
356
357 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
358
359 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
360
361 define mycommand
362 set $i = 0
363 while $i < $argc
364 eval "print $arg%d", $i
365 set $i = $i + 1
366 end
367 end
368
369 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
370
371 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
372 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
373
374 * New native configurations
375
376 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
377
378 * New targets
379
380 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
381 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
382
383 * Removed targets and native configurations
384
385 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
386 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
387
388 * New commands
389
390 flash-erase
391 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
392
393 maint print arc arc-instruction address
394 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
395
396 * New options
397
398 set disassembler-options
399 show disassembler-options
400 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
401 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
402 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
403 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
404 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
405
406 * New MI commands
407
408 -target-flash-erase
409 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
410 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
411
412 -file-list-shared-libraries
413 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
414 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
415
416 -catch-handlers
417 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
418 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
419
420 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
421
422 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
423
424 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
425 default. One must now explicitly configure with
426 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
427 option will be removed in a future release.
428
429 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
430 GDB connection.
431
432 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
433 memory backward from the given address. For example:
434
435 (gdb) bt
436 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
437 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
438 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
439 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
440 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
441 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
442 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
443 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
444 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
445
446 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
447 arrays of dynamic types.
448
449 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
450 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
451 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
452 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
453 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
454 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
455
456 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
457 descriptions.
458
459 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
460 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
461 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
462
463 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
464
465 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
466 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
467 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
468 signal received and code location.
469
470 For example:
471
472 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
473 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
474 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
475 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
476
477 * Rust language support.
478 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
479 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
480 Rust.
481
482 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
483
484 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
485 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
486 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
487 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
488 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
489 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
490 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
491 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
492 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
493 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
494 line.
495
496 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
497
498 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
499 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
500
501 * New commands
502
503 skip -file file
504 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
505 skip -function function
506 skip -rfunction regular-expression
507 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
508 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
509 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
510
511 maint info line-table REGEXP
512 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
513
514 maint selftest
515 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
516
517 new-ui INTERP TTY
518 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
519 using the TTY file for input/output.
520
521 * Python Scripting
522
523 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
524 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
525 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
526 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
527 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
528
529 signal-event EVENTID
530 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
531 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
532 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
533 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
534 signalling an event.
535
536 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
537 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
538 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
539
540 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
541 been removed:
542
543 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
544 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
545 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
546 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
547 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
548 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
549
550 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
551 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
552 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
553 bytecode into native code.
554
555 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
556 recording. For example:
557
558 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
559
560 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
561
562 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
563
564 * New targets
565
566 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
567
568 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
569
570 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
571
572 * Per-inferior thread numbers
573
574 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
575 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
576 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
577
578 (gdb) info threads
579 Id Target Id Frame
580 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
581 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
582 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
583 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
584
585 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
586 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
587 are no longer unique between inferiors.
588
589 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
590 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
591 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
592
593 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
594 IDs.
595
596 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
597 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
598
599 (gdb) thread 2.1
600 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
601 (gdb)
602
603 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
604 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
605 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
606 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
607 threads 2.*".
608
609 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
610 all threads.
611
612 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
613 the current thread.
614
615 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
616 current inferior.
617
618 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
619 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
620 example:
621
622 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
623 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
624
625 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
626
627 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
628
629 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
630 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
631
632 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
633 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
634 clients.
635
636 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
637 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
638 at the same time.
639
640 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
641 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
642 into native code.
643
644 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
645
646 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
647 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
648 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
649
650 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
651 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
652
653 * New commands
654
655 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
656 maint show target-non-stop
657 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
658 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
659 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
660
661 maint set bfd-sharing
662 maint show bfd-sharing
663 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
664
665 set debug bfd-cache
666 show debug bfd-cache
667 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
668
669 set debug fbsd-lwp
670 show debug fbsd-lwp
671 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
672
673 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
674 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
675 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
676
677 set remote thread-events
678 show remote thread-events
679 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
680
681 set ada print-signatures on|off
682 show ada print-signatures"
683 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
684 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
685
686 set max-value-size
687 show max-value-size
688 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
689 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
690 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
691
692 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
693 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
694 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
695 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
696 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
697 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
698
699 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
700 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
701
702 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
703 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
704
705 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
706
707 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
708 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
709 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
710 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
711 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
712 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
713
714 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
715 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
716
717 catch handlers
718 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
719
720 * New remote packets
721
722 exec stop reason
723 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
724
725 exec-events feature in qSupported
726 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
727 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
728 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
729 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
730
731 vCtrlC
732 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
733 non-stop mode.
734
735 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
736 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
737
738 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
739 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
740
741 QThreadEvents
742 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
743 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
744 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
745 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
746 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
747 stop for that same thread.
748
749 N stop reply
750 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
751 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
752 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
753
754 QCatchSyscalls
755 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
756 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
757
758 syscall_entry stop reason
759 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
760
761 syscall_return stop reason
762 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
763
764 * Extended-remote exec events
765
766 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
767 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
768 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
769
770 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
771 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
772 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
773
774 * Thread names in remote protocol
775
776 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
777 thread.
778
779 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
780
781 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
782 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
783 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
784 fork and exec catchpoints.
785
786 * Remote syscall events
787
788 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
789 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
790
791 set remote catch-syscall-packet
792 show remote catch-syscall-packet
793 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
794
795 * MI changes
796
797 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
798 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
799 left.
800
801 * Python Scripting
802
803 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
804 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
805 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
806 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
807 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
808 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
809
810 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
811
812 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
813 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
814 including advance SIMD instructions.
815
816 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
817
818 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
819 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
820 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
821 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
822 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
823 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
824 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
825
826 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
827 cpu information :
828 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
829
830 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
831 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
832 remote serial I/O.
833
834 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
835 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
836 and may include things like its command line arguments.
837
838 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
839 is now available on all platforms.
840
841 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
842 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
843 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
844 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
845 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
846 backward compatibility.
847
848 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
849 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
850 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
851 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
852
853 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
854 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
855 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
856 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
857 packets" below.
858
859 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
860
861 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
862
863 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
864 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
865 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
866 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
867 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
868 See "New remote packets" below.
869
870 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
871 available register groups, including target specific groups.
872
873 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
874 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
875 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
876 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
877 are ignored.
878
879 * Guile Scripting
880
881 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
882
883 * Python Scripting
884
885 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
886 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
887 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
888 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
889 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
890 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
891 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
892 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
893 "const" version of the value respectively.
894
895 * New commands
896
897 maint print symbol-cache
898 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
899
900 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
901 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
902
903 maint flush-symbol-cache
904 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
905
906 record btrace bts
907 record bts
908 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
909
910 compile print
911 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
912
913 tui enable
914 tui disable
915 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
916
917 show mpx bound
918 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
919 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
920
921 record btrace pt
922 record pt
923 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
924
925 maint info btrace
926 Print information about branch tracing internals.
927
928 maint btrace packet-history
929 Print the raw branch tracing data.
930
931 maint btrace clear-packet-history
932 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
933
934 maint btrace clear
935 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
936 anew by the next "record" command.
937
938 * New options
939
940 set debug dwarf-die
941 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
942 show debug dwarf-die
943 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
944
945 set debug dwarf-read
946 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
947 show debug dwarf-read
948 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
949
950 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
951 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
952 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
953 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
954
955 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
956 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
957 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
958 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
959
960 set debug dwarf-line
961 show debug dwarf-line
962 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
963
964 set max-completions
965 show max-completions
966 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
967 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
968 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
969 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
970
971 set history remove-duplicates
972 show history remove-duplicates
973 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
974
975 maint set symbol-cache-size
976 maint show symbol-cache-size
977 Control the size of the symbol cache.
978
979 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
980 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
981 BTS format.
982 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
983 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
984
985 set debug linux-namespaces
986 show debug linux-namespaces
987 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
988
989 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
990 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
991 Intel Processor Trace format.
992 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
993 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
994
995 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
996 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
997 packet history.
998
999 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1000 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1001
1002 * Python/Guile scripting
1003
1004 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1005 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1006
1007 * New remote packets
1008
1009 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1010 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1011
1012 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1013 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1014
1015 Qbtrace:pt
1016 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1017 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1018 qSupported query.
1019
1020 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1021 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1022 Trace format.
1023
1024 swbreak stop reason
1025 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1026 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1027 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1028 mode operation.
1029
1030 hwbreak stop reason
1031 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1032 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1033
1034 vFile:fstat:
1035 Return information about files on the remote system.
1036
1037 qXfer:exec-file:read
1038 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1039 create a process running on the remote system.
1040
1041 vFile:setfs:
1042 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1043 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1044 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1045 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1046
1047 fork stop reason
1048 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1049
1050 vfork stop reason
1051 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1052
1053 vforkdone stop reason
1054 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1055 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1056
1057 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1058 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1059 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1060 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1061 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1062 whether these features are enabled.
1063
1064 * Extended-remote fork events
1065
1066 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1067 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1068 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1069 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1070
1071 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1072 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1073 the btrace record target.
1074 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1075
1076 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1077 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1078
1079 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1080 targets.
1081
1082 * Removed command line options
1083
1084 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1085
1086 * Removed targets and native configurations
1087
1088 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1089 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1090
1091 * New configure options
1092
1093 --with-intel-pt
1094 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1095 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1096
1097 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1098 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1099 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1100 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1101
1102 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1103
1104 * Python Scripting
1105
1106 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1107
1108 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1109
1110 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1111
1112 * Python Scripting
1113
1114 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1115 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1116 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1117 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1118 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1119 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1120 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1121 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1122 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1123 selecting a new file to debug.
1124 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1125 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1126
1127 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1128 inferior.
1129
1130 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1131 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1132 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1133 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1134
1135 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1136
1137 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1138 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1139 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1140 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1141
1142 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1143 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1144 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1145 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1146 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1147 interface with this new feature are:
1148
1149 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1150 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1151
1152 * New commands
1153
1154 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1155 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1156 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1157 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1158 as "maint demangler-warning".
1159
1160 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1161 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1162
1163 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1164 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1165 scripts.
1166
1167 maint print user-registers
1168 List all currently available "user" registers.
1169
1170 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1171 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1172 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1173
1174 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1175 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1176 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1177 provided.
1178
1179 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1180 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1181 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1182 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1183 at resume time.
1184
1185 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1186 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1187 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1188 switched threads meanwhile.
1189
1190 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1191
1192 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1193 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1194 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1195 is now the default mode.
1196
1197 * New options
1198
1199 set debug symbol-lookup
1200 show debug symbol-lookup
1201 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1202
1203 * MI changes
1204
1205 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1206 inferiors that have exited.
1207
1208 * New targets
1209
1210 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1211
1212 * Removed targets
1213
1214 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1215
1216 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1217 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1218 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1219 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1220 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1221
1222 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1223 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1224 its alias "share", instead.
1225
1226 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1227
1228 * New command line options
1229
1230 -D data-directory
1231 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1232
1233 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1234 as specified in ISO C99.
1235
1236 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1237 with or without disassembly.
1238
1239 * Guile scripting
1240
1241 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1242 available is determined at configure time.
1243 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1244 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1245
1246 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1247
1248 guile [code]
1249 gu [code]
1250 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1251
1252 guile-repl
1253 gr
1254 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1255
1256 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1257 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1258
1259 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1260 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1261
1262 * New options
1263
1264 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1265 show print symbol-loading
1266 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1267 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1268 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1269 becomes less useful.
1270
1271 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1272 show guile print-stack
1273 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1274
1275 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1276 show auto-load guile-scripts
1277 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1278
1279 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1280 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1281 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1282 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1283 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1284 usage of this option.
1285
1286 set auto-connect-native-target
1287
1288 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1289 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1290 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1291
1292 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1293 show record btrace replay-memory-access
1294 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1295
1296 maint set target-async (on|off)
1297 maint show target-async
1298 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1299 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1300 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1301 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1302
1303 set mi-async (on|off)
1304 show mi-async
1305 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1306 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1307
1308 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1309 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1310
1311 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1312 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1313 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1314 "set target-async on" command.
1315
1316 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1317
1318 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1319 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1320 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1321 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1322 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1323
1324 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1325 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1326 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1327
1328 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1329 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1330 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1331 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1332 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1333 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1334 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1335
1336 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1337 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1338
1339 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1340 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1341 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1342
1343 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1344 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1345 memory or registers.
1346
1347 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1348
1349 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1350 remote. It now works with all targets.
1351
1352 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1353 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1354 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1355 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1356 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1357 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1358 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1359 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1360 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1361 target-stack".
1362
1363 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1364 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1365 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1366
1367 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1368
1369 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1370 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1371 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1372
1373 * New remote packets
1374
1375 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1376 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1377 branch trace incrementally.
1378
1379 * Python Scripting
1380
1381 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1382 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1383 available.
1384 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1385 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1386 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1387 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1388 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
1389
1390 * New targets
1391 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1392
1393 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1394 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1395 its alias "share", instead.
1396
1397 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1398 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1399 instead.
1400
1401 * MI changes
1402
1403 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1404 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1405 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1406 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1407 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1408 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1409 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1410 commands and CLI execution commands.
1411
1412 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
1413
1414 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1415 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1416 recording has been added.
1417
1418 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1419
1420 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1421 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1422
1423 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1424 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1425 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1426 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1427 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1428 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1429 "void".
1430
1431 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1432
1433 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1434
1435 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1436 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1437 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1438 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1439
1440 (gdb) p $rax
1441 $1 = <not saved>
1442
1443 (gdb) info registers rax
1444 rax <not saved>
1445
1446 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1447 "*value not available*".
1448
1449 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1450 to binaries.
1451
1452 * Python scripting
1453
1454 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1455 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1456 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1457 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1458 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1459 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1460
1461 * New targets
1462
1463 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1464 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1465 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1466
1467 * Removed native configurations
1468
1469 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1470 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1471
1472 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1473 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1474 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1475 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1476 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1477 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1478 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1479
1480 * New commands:
1481 catch rethrow
1482 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1483 maint check-psymtabs
1484 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1485 maint check-symtabs
1486 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1487 maint expand-symtabs
1488 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1489
1490 show configuration
1491 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1492
1493 maint set|show per-command
1494 maint set|show per-command space
1495 maint set|show per-command time
1496 maint set|show per-command symtab
1497 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1498
1499 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1500 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1501 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1502 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1503 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1504
1505 info exceptions
1506 info exceptions REGEXP
1507 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1508 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1509 are listed.
1510
1511 * New options
1512
1513 set debug symfile off|on
1514 show debug symfile
1515 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1516 symbol tables within those files
1517
1518 set print raw frame-arguments
1519 show print raw frame-arguments
1520 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1521 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1522
1523 set remote trace-status-packet
1524 show remote trace-status-packet
1525 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1526
1527 set debug nios2
1528 show debug nios2
1529 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1530
1531 set range-stepping
1532 show range-stepping
1533 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1534
1535 set startup-with-shell
1536 show startup-with-shell
1537 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1538 directly.
1539
1540 set code-cache
1541 show code-cache
1542 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1543 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1544
1545 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1546 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1547 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1548 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1549 "set height 0".
1550
1551 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1552 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1553 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1554
1555 * New command-line options
1556 --configuration
1557 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1558
1559 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1560 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1561
1562 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1563 GDB command gcore.
1564
1565 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1566
1567 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1568 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1569
1570 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1571 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1572
1573 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1574 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1575 due to an uncaught signal.
1576
1577 * MI changes
1578
1579 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1580 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1581 command, which should contain "language-option".
1582
1583 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1584 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1585
1586 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1587 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1588 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1589 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1590 "undefined-command-error-code".
1591
1592 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1593 Trace Format now.
1594
1595 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1596
1597 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1598 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1599 are displayed.
1600
1601 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1602 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1603
1604 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1605 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1606 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1607
1608 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1609 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1610 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1611 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1612 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1613 "exec-run-start-option".
1614
1615 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1616 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1617
1618 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1619 the new "info exceptions" command.
1620
1621 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1622 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1623 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1624 ** ElinOS
1625 ** Wind River Linux
1626
1627 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1628 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1629 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1630 below.
1631
1632 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1633 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1634
1635 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1636 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1637 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1638
1639 * New remote packets
1640
1641 vCont;r
1642
1643 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1644 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1645 involvemement at each single-step.
1646
1647 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1648 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1649 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1650 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1651 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1652 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1653 speedup.
1654
1655 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1656
1657 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1658 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1659
1660 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1661 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1662 trace state variables.
1663
1664 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1665 target.
1666
1667 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1668 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1669
1670 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1671
1672 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1673 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1674 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1675 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1676
1677 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1678
1679 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1680 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1681 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1682 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1683
1684 set|show record full insn-number-max
1685 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1686 set|show record full memory-query
1687
1688 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1689 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1690 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1691 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1692 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1693
1694 record btrace
1695
1696 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1697 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1698
1699 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1700 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1701 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1702
1703 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1704 instruction granularity
1705
1706 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1707 function granularity
1708
1709 * New native configurations
1710
1711 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1712 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1713 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1714 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1715
1716 * New targets
1717
1718 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1719 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1720 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1721 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1722 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1723
1724 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1725 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1726 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1727 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1728 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1729 --data-directory command-line option.
1730
1731 * New command line options:
1732
1733 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1734 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1735
1736 * Removed command line options
1737
1738 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1739 Emacs.
1740
1741 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1742 type formatting.
1743
1744 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1745
1746 * Python scripting
1747
1748 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1749
1750 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1751
1752 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1753
1754 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1755
1756 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1757 of architecture in the Python API.
1758
1759 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1760 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1761
1762 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1763
1764 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1765 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1766 ** $_strlen(str)
1767 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1768
1769 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1770 given an argument.
1771
1772 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1773 default for GCC since November 2000.
1774
1775 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1776
1777 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1778 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1779
1780 * New configure options
1781
1782 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1783 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1784 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1785 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1786 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1787 options allow the user to override that default.
1788 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1789 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1790 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1791
1792 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1793
1794 catch signal
1795 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1796 conditions to be attached.
1797
1798 maint info bfds
1799 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1800
1801 python-interactive [command]
1802 pi [command]
1803 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1804 and print the result of expressions.
1805
1806 py [command]
1807 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1808
1809 enable type-printer [name]...
1810 disable type-printer [name]...
1811 Enable or disable type printers.
1812
1813 * Removed commands
1814
1815 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1816 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1817 instead.
1818
1819 * New options
1820
1821 set print type methods (on|off)
1822 show print type methods
1823 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1824 The default is to show them.
1825
1826 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1827 show print type typedefs
1828 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1829 The default is to show them.
1830
1831 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1832 show filename-display
1833 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1834 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1835
1836 set trace-buffer-size
1837 show trace-buffer-size
1838 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1839
1840 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1841 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1842 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1843
1844 set debug aarch64
1845 show debug aarch64
1846 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1847 The default is off.
1848
1849 set debug coff-pe-read
1850 show debug coff-pe-read
1851 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1852 exported symbols.
1853
1854 set debug mach-o
1855 show debug mach-o
1856 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1857 processing.
1858
1859 set debug notification
1860 show debug notification
1861 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1862
1863 * MI changes
1864
1865 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1866 "=cmd-param-changed".
1867 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1868 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1869 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1870 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1871 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1872 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1873 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1874 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1875 "=memory-changed".
1876 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1877 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1878 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1879 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1880 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1881 library load/unload events.
1882 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1883 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1884 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1885 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1886 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1887 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1888 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1889 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1890
1891 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1892 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1893 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1894 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1895
1896 * New remote packets
1897
1898 QTBuffer:size
1899 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1900 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1901
1902 Qbtrace:bts
1903 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1904 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1905 qSupported query.
1906
1907 Qbtrace:off
1908 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1909 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1910
1911 qXfer:btrace:read
1912 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1913 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1914
1915 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1916
1917 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1918 for more x32 ABI info.
1919
1920 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1921
1922 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1923
1924 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1925 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1926 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1927 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1928 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1929 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1930 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1931 "info os msg" lists message queues
1932 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1933
1934 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1935 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1936 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1937 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1938 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1939 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1940
1941 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1942 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1943 record/replay support.
1944
1945 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1946
1947 * Python scripting
1948
1949 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
1950 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
1951
1952 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
1953
1954 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
1955 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
1956
1957 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
1958
1959 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
1960 the source at which the symbol was defined.
1961
1962 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
1963 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
1964 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
1965 symbol's value.
1966
1967 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
1968 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
1969
1970 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
1971 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
1972 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
1973
1974 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
1975 object associated with a PC value.
1976
1977 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
1978 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
1979
1980 * Go language support.
1981 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
1982 language.
1983
1984 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1985 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1986
1987 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1988 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1989
1990 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
1991 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
1992 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
1993 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
1994 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
1995 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
1996
1997 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
1998 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
1999 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2000 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2001
2002 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2003 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2004
2005 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2006 since December 2007.
2007
2008 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2009 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2010 command does. For instance:
2011
2012 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2013
2014 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2015 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2016 created, using the "condition" command.
2017
2018 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2019 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2020
2021 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2022
2023 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2024 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2025 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2026 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2027 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2028 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2029 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2030 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2031
2032 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2033 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2034 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2035 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2036 the .gdb_index section.
2037
2038 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2039
2040 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2041 target.
2042
2043 * MI changes
2044
2045 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2046
2047 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2048
2049 * New commands
2050
2051 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2052 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2053 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2054
2055 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2056 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2057
2058 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2059 several hits.
2060
2061 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2062 C++ and Java objects.
2063
2064 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2065 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2066 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2067 configured with '--with-python'.
2068
2069 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2070 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2071 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2072 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2073 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2074 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2075 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2076
2077 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2078 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2079 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2080 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2081
2082 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2083 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2084 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2085 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2086
2087 ** "set print symbol"
2088 "show print symbol"
2089 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2090 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2091 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2092
2093 * Deprecated commands
2094
2095 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2096 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2097
2098 * New targets
2099
2100 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2101 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2102
2103 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2104 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2105 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2106 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2107 evaluates to true.
2108
2109 * New options
2110
2111 set mips compression
2112 show mips compression
2113 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2114 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2115 mips16
2116 micromips
2117 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2118
2119 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2120 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2121 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2122 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2123 available mode.
2124 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2125 target.
2126
2127 set auto-load off
2128 Disable auto-loading globally.
2129
2130 show auto-load
2131 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2132
2133 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2134 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2135 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2136
2137 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2138 show auto-load python-scripts
2139 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2140
2141 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2142 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2143 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2144
2145 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2146 show auto-load libthread-db
2147 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2148
2149 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2150 show auto-load scripts-directory
2151 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2152 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2153 of the directories listed by this option.
2154 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2155
2156 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2157 show auto-load safe-path
2158 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2159 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2160
2161 set debug auto-load on|off
2162 show debug auto-load
2163 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2164
2165 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2166 show dprintf-style
2167 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2168 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2169 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2170 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2171
2172 set dprintf-function <expr>
2173 show dprintf-function
2174 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2175 show dprintf-channel
2176 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2177 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2178
2179 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2180 show disconnected-dprintf
2181 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2182 after GDB disconnects.
2183
2184 * New configure options
2185
2186 --with-auto-load-dir
2187 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2188 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2189 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2190 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2191 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2192
2193 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2194 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2195 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2196
2197 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2198 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2199 security feature.
2200
2201 * New remote packets
2202
2203 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2204
2205 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2206 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2207 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2208 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2209
2210 QProgramSignals:
2211
2212 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2213 program without GDB involvement.
2214
2215 * New command line options
2216
2217 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2218 before loading inferior.
2219 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2220 execute it before loading inferior.
2221
2222 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2223
2224 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2225 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2226 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2227 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2228 inferior changes.
2229
2230 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2231 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2232
2233 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2234 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2235 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2236 target hardware watchpoint.
2237
2238 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2239 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2240 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2241 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2242
2243 * Python scripting
2244
2245 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2246 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2247 existing one.
2248
2249 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2250 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2251 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2252 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2253 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2254 the stack trace.
2255
2256 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2257 Python API.
2258
2259 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2260 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2261 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2262 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2263 corresponding value.
2264
2265 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2266 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2267 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2268 on GDB start-up.
2269
2270 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2271 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2272 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2273 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2274
2275 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2276
2277 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2278 "gdb.breakpoints".
2279
2280 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2281 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2282 available in the CLI.
2283
2284 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2285 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2286 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2287 "some_type.items()".
2288
2289 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2290 new object file.
2291
2292 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2293 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2294 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2295 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2296 any anonymous fields.
2297
2298 * MI changes
2299
2300 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2301 "solib-event".
2302
2303 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2304 "=breakpoint-modified".
2305
2306 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2307
2308 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2309 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2310 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2311 lives.
2312
2313 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2314 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2315 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2316 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2317 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2318
2319 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2320 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2321
2322 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2323 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2324 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2325 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2326 use this option to specify where to find it.
2327
2328 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2329 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2330 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2331 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2332 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2333 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2334 section in the user manual for more details.
2335
2336 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2337 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2338 become available after that.
2339
2340 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2341
2342 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2343 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2344 gcc version 4.7.
2345
2346 * New commands
2347
2348 !SHELL COMMAND
2349 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2350 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2351
2352 * Changed commands
2353
2354 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2355 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2356 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2357
2358 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2359 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2360 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2361
2362 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2363 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2364 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2365 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2366 name starts with a hyphen.
2367
2368 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2369 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2370 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2371 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2372 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2373 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2374 number of bytes that will be collected.
2375
2376 tstart [NOTES]
2377 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2378 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2379 setting the variable trace-notes.
2380
2381 tstop [NOTES]
2382 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2383 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2384 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2385 trace-stop-notes.
2386
2387 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2388 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2389 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2390 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2391 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2392 is running.
2393
2394 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2395 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2396 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2397
2398 * New options
2399
2400 set debug dwarf2-read
2401 show debug dwarf2-read
2402 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2403 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2404
2405 set debug symtab-create
2406 show debug symtab-create
2407 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2408 creation. The default is off.
2409
2410 set extended-prompt
2411 show extended-prompt
2412 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2413 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2414 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2415 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2416 prompt is displayed.
2417
2418 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2419 show print entry-values
2420 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2421 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2422 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2423
2424 set debug entry-values
2425 show debug entry-values
2426 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2427 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2428
2429 set basenames-may-differ
2430 show basenames-may-differ
2431 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2432 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2433 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2434 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2435 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2436 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2437 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2438 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2439
2440 set trace-user
2441 show trace-user
2442 set trace-notes
2443 show trace-notes
2444 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2445 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2446 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2447 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2448
2449 set trace-stop-notes
2450 show trace-stop-notes
2451 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2452 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2453 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2454 started by someone else.
2455
2456 * New remote packets
2457
2458 QTEnable
2459
2460 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2461
2462 QTDisable
2463
2464 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2465
2466 QTNotes
2467
2468 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2469
2470 qTP
2471
2472 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2473
2474 qTMinFTPILen
2475
2476 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2477 be placed.
2478
2479 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2480 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2481
2482 * New targets
2483
2484 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2485
2486 * New Simulators
2487
2488 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2489
2490 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2491
2492 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2493
2494 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2495
2496 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2497 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2498 matches the given regular expression.
2499
2500 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2501
2502 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2503 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2504
2505 * New command line options
2506
2507 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2508 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2509
2510 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2511 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2512
2513 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2514 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2515 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2516
2517 * GDB now understands thread names.
2518
2519 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2520 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2521
2522 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2523 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2524
2525 * OpenCL C
2526 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2527 has been integrated into GDB.
2528
2529 * Python scripting
2530
2531 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2532 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2533 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2534
2535 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2536 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2537 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2538 and allows for more dynamic content.
2539
2540 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2541 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2542 have an is_valid method.
2543
2544 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2545 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2546 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2547
2548 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2549
2550 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2551 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2552 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2553 that function like so:
2554
2555 result = some_value (10,20)
2556
2557 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2558 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2559 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2560
2561 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2562 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2563 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2564 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2565 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2566
2567 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2568 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2569
2570 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2571
2572 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2573 selected thread.
2574
2575 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2576 holds the thread's name.
2577
2578 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2579 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2580 occurring in the process being debugged.
2581 The following events are currently supported:
2582 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2583 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2584 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2585
2586 * C++ Improvements:
2587
2588 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2589 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2590
2591 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2592
2593 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2594 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2595 was added to GCC 4.5.
2596
2597 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2598 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2599 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2600 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2601 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2602 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2603
2604 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2605 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2606 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2607 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2608 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2609
2610 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2611 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2612 execution to a label.
2613
2614 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2615 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2616 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2617 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2618
2619 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2620 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2621 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2622 of scope.
2623
2624 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2625
2626 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2627 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2628 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2629 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2630 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2631 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2632
2633 (gdb) info threads
2634 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2635
2636 While now you see this:
2637
2638 (gdb) info threads
2639 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2640
2641 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2642 dumps.
2643
2644 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2645 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2646 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2647 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2648
2649 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2650 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2651 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2652 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2653 section in the user manual for more details.
2654
2655 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2656
2657 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2658 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2659
2660 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2661
2662 * New native configurations
2663
2664 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2665
2666 * New targets:
2667
2668 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2669
2670 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2671 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2672 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2673 in the GDB user manual.
2674
2675 * Guile support was removed.
2676
2677 * New features in the GNU simulator
2678
2679 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2680
2681 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2682
2683 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2684
2685 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2686
2687 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2688 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2689 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2690 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2691 was always disabled for such configurations.
2692
2693 * C++ Improvements:
2694
2695 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2696
2697 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2698 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2699 For example:
2700 namespace A
2701 {
2702 class B { };
2703 void foo (B) { }
2704 }
2705 ...
2706 A::B b
2707 foo(b)
2708 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2709 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2710 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2711
2712 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2713
2714 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2715 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2716 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2717 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2718 entry.
2719 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2720 mentioned flavors of operators.
2721
2722 ** static const class members
2723
2724 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2725 class definition has been fixed.
2726
2727 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2728
2729 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2730 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2731 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2732 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2733 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2734 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2735
2736 * Static tracepoints
2737
2738 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2739 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2740 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2741 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2742 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2743 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2744 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2745 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2746 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2747 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2748 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2749 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2750 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2751 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2752 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2753 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2754 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2755 the "New remote packets" section below.
2756
2757 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2758
2759 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2760 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2761 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2762 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2763
2764 * Observer mode
2765
2766 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2767 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2768 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2769 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2770 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2771 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2772 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2773
2774 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2775 current thread.
2776
2777 * New remote packets
2778
2779 qGetTIBAddr
2780
2781 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2782
2783 qRelocInsn
2784
2785 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2786 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2787 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2788 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2789 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2790 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2791
2792 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2793
2794 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2795
2796 qTSTMat
2797
2798 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2799 program.
2800
2801 qXfer:statictrace:read
2802
2803 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2804 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2805 to gdb's qSupported query.
2806
2807 QAllow
2808
2809 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2810
2811 QTDPsrc
2812
2813 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2814 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2815
2816 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2817 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2818 a directory.
2819
2820 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2821
2822 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2823 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2824 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2825 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2826
2827 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2828 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2829 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2830 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2831 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2832 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2833 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2834
2835 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2836 for static tracepoints support.
2837
2838 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2839
2840 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2841 it understands register description.
2842
2843 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2844
2845 * X86 general purpose registers
2846
2847 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2848 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2849 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2850 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2851 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2852
2853 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2854 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2855 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2856 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2857 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2858 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2859
2860 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2861 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2862 in the specified file.
2863
2864 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2865 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2866 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2867 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2868 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2869 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2870 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2871 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2872 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2873 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2874
2875 * New commands
2876
2877 eval template, expressions...
2878 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2879 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2880
2881 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2882 show target-file-system-kind
2883 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2884 names.
2885
2886 save breakpoints <filename>
2887 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2888 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2889 definitions, use the `source' command.
2890
2891 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2892 is now deprecated.
2893
2894 info static-tracepoint-markers
2895 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2896
2897 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2898 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2899 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2900
2901 set observer on|off
2902 show observer
2903 Enable and disable observer mode.
2904
2905 set may-write-registers on|off
2906 set may-write-memory on|off
2907 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2908 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2909 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2910 set may-interrupt on|off
2911 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2912 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2913 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2914 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2915 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2916 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2917 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2918
2919 set record memory-query on|off
2920 show record memory-query
2921 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2922 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2923
2924 * Changed commands
2925
2926 disassemble
2927 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2928
2929 * Python scripting
2930
2931 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2932 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2933 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2934 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2935 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2936
2937 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
2938 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2939 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2940 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
2941
2942 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
2943 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2944
2945 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
2946
2947 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
2948
2949 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
2950
2951 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
2952 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
2953 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
2954
2955 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
2956 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
2957 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
2958 regular breakpoints.
2959
2960 * New targets
2961
2962 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2963
2964 * D language support.
2965 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
2966 language.
2967
2968 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
2969 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
2970 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
2971 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
2972 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
2973
2974 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
2975 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
2976 conditions of the form:
2977
2978 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
2979
2980 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
2981 interface mentioned above.
2982
2983 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
2984
2985 * C++ Improvements
2986
2987 ** Namespace Support
2988
2989 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
2990 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
2991 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
2992 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
2993 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
2994
2995 ** Bug Fixes
2996
2997 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
2998 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
2999 qualified name.
3000
3001 ** Cast Operators
3002
3003 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3004 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3005
3006 * New targets
3007
3008 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3009 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3010
3011 * New Simulators
3012
3013 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3014 Renesas RX rx
3015
3016 * Multi-program debugging.
3017
3018 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3019 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3020 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3021 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3022 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3023 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3024 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3025 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3026
3027 * New tracing features
3028
3029 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3030
3031 ** Trace state variables
3032
3033 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3034 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3035 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3036 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3037 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3038 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3039 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3040 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3041 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3042 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3043
3044 ** Fast tracepoints
3045
3046 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3047 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3048 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3049 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3050 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3051 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3052 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3053 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3054 the regular trace command.
3055
3056 ** Disconnected tracing
3057
3058 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3059 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3060 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3061 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3062 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3063
3064 ** Trace files
3065
3066 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3067 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3068 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3069 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3070 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3071 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3072 <name>".
3073
3074 ** Circular trace buffer
3075
3076 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3077 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3078 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3079 not be available for all target agents.
3080
3081 * Changed commands
3082
3083 disassemble
3084 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3085 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3086
3087 info variables
3088 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3089 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3090
3091 source
3092 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3093 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3094 support.
3095
3096 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3097 "set script-extension" (see below).
3098
3099 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3100
3101 record save [<FILENAME>]
3102 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3103 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3104
3105 record restore <FILENAME>
3106 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3107 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3108
3109 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3110 Add a new inferior.
3111
3112 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3113 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3114 inferior has loaded.
3115
3116 remove-inferior ID
3117 Remove an inferior.
3118
3119 maint info program-spaces
3120 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3121
3122 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3123 show remote interrupt-sequence
3124 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3125 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3126 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3127 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3128 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3129
3130 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3131 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3132 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3133 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3134 Linux kernel.
3135
3136 set remotebreak [on | off]
3137 show remotebreak
3138 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3139
3140 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3141 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3142
3143 info tvariables
3144 List trace state variables and their values.
3145
3146 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3147 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3148
3149 teval EXPR, ...
3150 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3151 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3152
3153 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3154 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3155
3156 * New expression syntax
3157
3158 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3159 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3160
3161 * New options
3162
3163 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3164 show follow-exec-mode
3165 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3166 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3167 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3168
3169 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3170 show default-collect
3171 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3172 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3173 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3174
3175 set disconnected-tracing
3176 show disconnected-tracing
3177 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3178 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3179 upon disconnection.
3180
3181 set circular-trace-buffer
3182 show circular-trace-buffer
3183 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3184 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3185 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3186 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3187
3188 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3189 show script-extension
3190 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3191 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3192 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3193 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3194 evaluation failed.
3195 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3196
3197 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3198 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3199 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3200 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3201 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3202 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3203 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3204 is on.
3205
3206 * Python API Improvements
3207
3208 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3209 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3210 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3211
3212 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3213 `is_base_class' attribute.
3214
3215 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3216
3217 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3218 evaluate an expression.
3219
3220 * New remote packets
3221
3222 QTDV
3223 Define a trace state variable.
3224
3225 qTV
3226 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3227
3228 QTDisconnected
3229 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3230
3231 QTBuffer:circular
3232 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3233
3234 qTfP, qTsP
3235 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3236
3237 * Bug fixes
3238
3239 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3240
3241 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3242 much more reliable. In particular:
3243 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3244 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3245 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3246 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3247 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3248 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3249 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3250 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3251 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3252 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3253 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3254 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3255 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3256 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3257 non-threaded programs.
3258
3259 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3260 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3261 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3262 executable program.
3263
3264 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
3265
3266 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3267 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3268 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3269 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3270 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3271
3272 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3273 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3274 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3275 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3276 for tracepoint actions.
3277
3278 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3279 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3280 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
3281
3282 * Process record and replay
3283
3284 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3285 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3286 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3287 execute commands.
3288
3289 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3290 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3291 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3292 reverse execution.
3293
3294 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3295 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3296 2.6.28 or later.
3297
3298 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3299 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3300 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3301 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3302 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3303 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3304 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3305 the installation instructions for more information.
3306
3307 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3308 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3309 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3310 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3311
3312 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3313 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3314
3315 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3316 now complete on file names.
3317
3318 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3319 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3320 For instance, consider:
3321
3322 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3323 # struct example variable;
3324 (gdb) p variable.
3325
3326 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3327 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3328
3329 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3330 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3331
3332 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3333 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3334 macros.
3335
3336 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3337 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3338 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3339
3340 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3341 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3342 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3343 and simulator targets may also provide them.
3344
3345 * New remote packets
3346
3347 qSearch:memory:
3348 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3349
3350 QStartNoAckMode
3351 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3352 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3353 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3354
3355 vKill
3356 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3357 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3358
3359 qXfer:osdata:read
3360 Obtains additional operating system information
3361
3362 qXfer:siginfo:read
3363 qXfer:siginfo:write
3364 Read or write additional signal information.
3365
3366 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3367
3368 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3369 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3370 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3371
3372 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3373 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3374
3375 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3376 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3377 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
3378
3379 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3380 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3381
3382 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3383
3384 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3385
3386 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3387 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3388
3389 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
3390 list of section offsets.
3391
3392 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3393 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3394 have also been fixed.
3395
3396 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3397 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3398 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3399
3400 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3401 example, given:
3402
3403 template<typename T> class C { };
3404 C<char const *> c;
3405
3406 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3407
3408 ptype C<char const *>
3409 ptype C<char const*>
3410 ptype C<const char *>
3411 ptype C<const char*>
3412
3413 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3414
3415 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3416 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3417
3418 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3419 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3420 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3421
3422 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3423 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3424
3425 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3426 gdbserver.
3427
3428 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3429 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3430
3431 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3432 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3433 as appropriate.
3434
3435 * Python scripting
3436
3437 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3438 available is determined at configure time.
3439
3440 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3441
3442 * Ada tasking support
3443
3444 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3445 been introduced:
3446
3447 info tasks
3448 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3449 info task N
3450 Print detailed information about task number N.
3451 task
3452 Print the task number of the current task.
3453 task N
3454 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3455
3456 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3457 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3458
3459 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3460
3461 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3462 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3463 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3464 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3465 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3466 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3467 below.
3468
3469 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3470 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3471 information.
3472
3473 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3474 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3475 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3476 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3477 more information.
3478
3479 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3480
3481 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3482 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3483 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3484 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3485 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3486
3487 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3488 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3489 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3490 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3491 --enable-targets configure option.
3492
3493 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3494
3495 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3496 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3497 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3498 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3499 section in the user manual for more information.
3500
3501 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3502 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3503 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3504 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3505 extensions on linux targets.
3506
3507 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3508
3509 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3510 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3511 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3512 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3513 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3514 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3515 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3516 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3517 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3518
3519 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3520 val1 [, val2, ...]
3521 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3522
3523 maint set python print-stack
3524 maint show python print-stack
3525 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3526
3527 python [CODE]
3528 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3529
3530 macro define
3531 macro list
3532 macro undef
3533 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3534 interactively.
3535
3536 info os processes
3537 Show operating system information about processes.
3538
3539 info inferiors
3540 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3541
3542 inferior NUM
3543 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3544
3545 detach inferior NUM
3546 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3547
3548 kill inferior NUM
3549 Kill inferior number NUM.
3550
3551 * New options
3552
3553 set spu stop-on-load
3554 show spu stop-on-load
3555 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3556
3557 set spu auto-flush-cache
3558 show spu auto-flush-cache
3559 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3560 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3561
3562 set sh calling-convention
3563 show sh calling-convention
3564 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3565
3566 set debug timestamp
3567 show debug timestamp
3568 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3569
3570 set disassemble-next-line
3571 show disassemble-next-line
3572 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3573 the debuggee stops.
3574
3575 set remote noack-packet
3576 show remote noack-packet
3577 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3578 under "New remote packets."
3579
3580 set remote query-attached-packet
3581 show remote query-attached-packet
3582 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3583
3584 set remote read-siginfo-object
3585 show remote read-siginfo-object
3586 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3587 packet.
3588
3589 set remote write-siginfo-object
3590 show remote write-siginfo-object
3591 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3592 packet.
3593
3594 set remote reverse-continue
3595 show remote reverse-continue
3596 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3597
3598 set remote reverse-step
3599 show remote reverse-step
3600 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3601
3602 set displaced-stepping
3603 show displaced-stepping
3604 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3605 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3606 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3607
3608 set debug displaced
3609 show debug displaced
3610 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3611
3612 maint set internal-error
3613 maint show internal-error
3614 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3615
3616 maint set internal-warning
3617 maint show internal-warning
3618 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3619
3620 set exec-wrapper
3621 show exec-wrapper
3622 unset exec-wrapper
3623 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3624
3625 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3626 show multiple-symbols
3627 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3628 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3629 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3630
3631 set breakpoint always-inserted
3632 show breakpoint always-inserted
3633 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3634 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3635 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3636
3637 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3638 show arm fallback-mode
3639 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3640 show arm force-mode
3641 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3642 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3643 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3644 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3645
3646 set disable-randomization
3647 show disable-randomization
3648 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3649 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3650 multiple debugging sessions.
3651
3652 set non-stop
3653 show non-stop
3654 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3655 a breakpoint.
3656
3657 set target-async
3658 show target-async
3659 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3660 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3661 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3662 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3663
3664 set target-wide-charset
3665 show target-wide-charset
3666 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3667 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3668
3669 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3670 show tcp auto-retry
3671 set tcp connect-timeout
3672 show tcp connect-timeout
3673 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3674 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3675 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3676
3677 set libthread-db-search-path
3678 show libthread-db-search-path
3679 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3680 libthread_db.
3681
3682 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3683 show schedule-multiple
3684 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3685 the current process.
3686
3687 set stack-cache
3688 show stack-cache
3689 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3690 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3691 affecting correctness.
3692
3693 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3694 show interactive-mode
3695 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3696 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3697 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3698 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3699 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3700
3701 * Removed commands
3702
3703 info forks
3704 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3705 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3706 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3707 command.
3708
3709 fork NUM
3710 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3711 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3712 alias for the `fork' command.
3713
3714 process PID
3715 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3716 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3717 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3718
3719 delete fork NUM
3720 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3721 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3722 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3723 fork' command.
3724
3725 detach fork NUM
3726 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3727 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3728 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3729 fork' command.
3730
3731 * New native configurations
3732
3733 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3734
3735 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3736
3737 * New targets
3738
3739 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3740 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3741 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3742 S+core 3 score-*-*
3743
3744 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3745 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3746
3747 * Removed commands
3748
3749 catch load
3750 catch unload
3751 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3752
3753 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3754
3755 * New native configurations
3756
3757 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3758 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3759
3760 * New targets
3761
3762 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3763 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3764
3765 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3766
3767 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3768 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3769 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3770 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3771
3772 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3773 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3774
3775 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3776 is resolved.
3777
3778 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3779 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3780 and in inlined functions.
3781
3782 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3783 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3784 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3785
3786 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3787
3788 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3789 registers on PowerPC targets.
3790
3791 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3792 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3793
3794 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3795 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3796
3797 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3798 extended-remote mode.
3799
3800 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3801 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3802 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3803 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3804
3805 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3806 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3807 target architectures.
3808
3809 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3810 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3811 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3812 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3813
3814 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3815 breakpoints now.
3816
3817 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3818 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3819 include:
3820 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3821 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3822 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3823 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3824 of an assignment
3825 - Improved command completion in Ada
3826 - Several bug fixes
3827
3828 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3829 process.
3830
3831 * New commands
3832
3833 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3834 show print frame-arguments
3835 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3836 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3837
3838 remote put
3839 remote get
3840 remote delete
3841 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3842
3843 * New MI commands
3844
3845 -target-file-put
3846 -target-file-get
3847 -target-file-delete
3848 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3849
3850 * New remote packets
3851
3852 vFile:open:
3853 vFile:close:
3854 vFile:pread:
3855 vFile:pwrite:
3856 vFile:unlink:
3857 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3858
3859 vAttach
3860 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3861 mode.
3862
3863 vRun
3864 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3865
3866 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3867
3868 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3869 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3870 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3871
3872 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3873 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3874 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3875
3876 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3877 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3878 is not supported.
3879
3880 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3881 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3882
3883 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3884 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3885
3886 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3887
3888 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3889 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3890 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3891
3892 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3893 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3894
3895 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3896 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3897 as strings.
3898
3899 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3900 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3901 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3902
3903 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3904 iWMMXt coprocessor.
3905
3906 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3907 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3908 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3909
3910 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3911
3912 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3913
3914 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3915 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3916 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3917
3918 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3919 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3920
3921 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3922 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3923 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3924 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3925 Windows and SymbianOS).
3926
3927 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3928 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3929
3930 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3931 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3932
3933 * New commands
3934
3935 set remoteflow
3936 show remoteflow
3937 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3938 when debugging using remote targets.
3939
3940 set mem inaccessible-by-default
3941 show mem inaccessible-by-default
3942 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3943 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3944 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3945 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3946 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3947
3948 set breakpoint auto-hw
3949 show breakpoint auto-hw
3950 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3951 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3952 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
3953 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
3954 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
3955 including "next" and "finish".
3956
3957 catch exception
3958 catch exception unhandled
3959 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
3960
3961 catch assert
3962 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
3963
3964 set sysroot
3965 show sysroot
3966 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
3967 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
3968 an alias to "set sysroot".
3969
3970 info spu
3971 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
3972 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
3973 architecture.
3974
3975 * New native configurations
3976
3977 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
3978
3979 set tdesc filename
3980 unset tdesc filename
3981 show tdesc filename
3982 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
3983 not query the target for its built-in description.
3984
3985 * New targets
3986
3987 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
3988 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
3989 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
3990
3991 * New remote packets
3992
3993 QPassSignals:
3994 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
3995 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
3996
3997 qXfer:features:read:
3998 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
3999 features.
4000
4001 qXfer:spu:read:
4002 qXfer:spu:write:
4003 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4004 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4005
4006 qXfer:libraries:read:
4007 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4008 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4009 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4010 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4011
4012 * Removed targets
4013
4014 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4015
4016 alpha*-*-osf1*
4017 alpha*-*-osf2*
4018 d10v-*-*
4019 hppa*-*-hiux*
4020 i[34567]86-ncr-*
4021 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4022 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4023 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4024 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4025 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4026 i[34567]86-*-sco*
4027 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4028 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4029 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4030 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4031 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4032 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4033 i[34567]86-*-isc*
4034 m68*-cisco*-*
4035 m68*-tandem-*
4036 mips*-*-pe
4037 rs6000-*-lynxos*
4038 sh*-*-pe
4039
4040 * Other removed features
4041
4042 target abug
4043 target cpu32bug
4044 target est
4045 target rom68k
4046
4047 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4048
4049 target hms
4050 target e7000
4051 target sh3
4052 target sh3e
4053
4054 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4055 H8/300.
4056
4057 target ocd
4058
4059 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4060 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4061 interfaces.
4062
4063 DWARF 1 support
4064
4065 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4066 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4067
4068 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4069
4070 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4071 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4072 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4073 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4074
4075 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4076
4077 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4078 in debugging information.
4079
4080 Scheme support
4081
4082 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4083 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4084
4085 set mips stack-arg-size
4086 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4087
4088 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4089
4090 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4091
4092 * New targets
4093
4094 Xtensa xtensa-elf
4095 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4096
4097 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4098 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4099 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4100
4101 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4102 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4103 supported.
4104
4105 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4106 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4107
4108 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4109 stub provides the required support.
4110
4111 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4112 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4113
4114 * New commands
4115
4116 set substitute-path
4117 unset substitute-path
4118 show substitute-path
4119 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4120 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4121 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4122 between compilation and debugging.
4123
4124 set trace-commands
4125 show trace-commands
4126 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4127 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4128 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4129
4130 * REMOVED features
4131
4132 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4133
4134 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4135 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4136
4137 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4138
4139 * New remote packets
4140
4141 qSupported:
4142 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4143 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4144 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4145 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4146 target.
4147
4148 qXfer:auxv:read:
4149 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4150 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4151
4152 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4153 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4154 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4155
4156 vFlashErase:
4157 vFlashWrite:
4158 vFlashDone:
4159 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4160
4161 * Removed remote packets
4162
4163 qPart:auxv:read:
4164 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4165 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4166
4167 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4168
4169 * New targets
4170
4171 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4172
4173 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4174
4175 * New commands
4176
4177 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4178 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4179
4180 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4181
4182 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4183
4184 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4185 previously saved state.
4186
4187 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4188
4189 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4190
4191 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4192 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4193
4194 info forks List forks of the user program that
4195 are available to be debugged.
4196
4197 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4198 forks of the user program that are
4199 available to be debugged.
4200
4201 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4202 that are available to be debugged (and
4203 kill the forked process).
4204
4205 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4206 that are available to be debugged (and
4207 allow the process to continue).
4208
4209 * New architecture
4210
4211 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4212
4213 * Improved Windows host support
4214
4215 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4216 native console support, and remote communications using either
4217 network sockets or serial ports.
4218
4219 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4220
4221 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4222 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4223 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4224 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4225 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4226 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4227
4228 * REMOVED features
4229
4230 The ARM rdi-share module.
4231
4232 The Netware NLM debug server.
4233
4234 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4235
4236 * New native configurations
4237
4238 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4239 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4240
4241 * New targets
4242
4243 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4244
4245 * New command line options
4246
4247 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4248 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4249 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4250 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4251 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4252 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4253 with the --command (-x) option.
4254
4255 * Deprecated commands removed
4256
4257 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4258 removed:
4259
4260 Command Replacement
4261 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4262 othernames set arm disassembler
4263 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4264 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4265 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4266 regs info registers
4267
4268 * New BSD user-level threads support
4269
4270 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4271 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4272 configurations are:
4273
4274 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4275 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4276 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4277
4278 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4279 are not yet supported.
4280
4281 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4282 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4283
4284 * REMOVED configurations and files
4285
4286 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4287 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4288 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4289
4290 * New "set print array-indexes" command
4291
4292 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4293 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4294 behavior.
4295
4296 * VAX floating point support
4297
4298 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4299
4300 * User-defined command support
4301
4302 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4303 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4304 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4305
4306 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4307
4308 * New command line option
4309
4310 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4311 debugging.
4312
4313 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4314
4315 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4316 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4317 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4318 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4319 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4320
4321 * Internationalization
4322
4323 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4324 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4325 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4326
4327 * Ada
4328
4329 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4330 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4331 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4332
4333 * New native configurations
4334
4335 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4336
4337 * Remote 'p' packet
4338
4339 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4340 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4341
4342 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4343
4344 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4345 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4346 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4347 i386 application).
4348
4349 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4350 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4351 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4352 configurations:
4353
4354 hppa-*-hpux
4355 ia64-*-aix
4356 mips-*-irix*
4357 *-*-lynx
4358 mips-*-linux-gnu
4359 sds protocol
4360 xdr protocol
4361 powerpc bdm protocol
4362
4363 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4364 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4365
4366 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4367
4368 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4369 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4370 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4371 permanently REMOVED.
4372
4373 h8300-*-*
4374 mcore-*-*
4375 mn10300-*-*
4376 ns32k-*-*
4377 sh64-*-*
4378 v850-*-*
4379
4380 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4381
4382 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4383
4384 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4385 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4386 been fixed.
4387
4388 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4389
4390 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4391 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4392 IRIX long double values).
4393
4394 * VAX and "next"
4395
4396 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4397 command. This problem has been fixed.
4398
4399 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4400
4401 * Fix for ``many threads''
4402
4403 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4404 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4405 error message:
4406
4407 ptrace: No such process.
4408 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4409
4410 This problem has been fixed.
4411
4412 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4413
4414 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4415 GDB to dump core).
4416
4417 * New ``start'' command.
4418
4419 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4420
4421 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4422
4423 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4424 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4425 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4426
4427 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4428 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4429 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4430 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4431 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4432 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4433 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4434 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4435 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4436
4437 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
4438
4439 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4440 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4441 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4442 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4443 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4444
4445 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4446 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4447 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4448
4449 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4450
4451 * New native configurations
4452
4453 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4454 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4455 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4456 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4457 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4458 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4459 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4460
4461 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4462
4463 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4464 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4465 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4466 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4467 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4468 work, was also included.
4469
4470 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4471 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4472
4473 h8300-*-*
4474 mcore-*-*
4475 mn10300-*-*
4476 ns32k-*-*
4477 sh64-*-*
4478 v850-*-*
4479 xstormy16-*-*
4480
4481 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4482 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4483
4484 * REMOVED configurations and files
4485
4486 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4487 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4488 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4489 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4490 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4491 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4492 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4493 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4494 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4495 sonymips mips-sony-*
4496 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4497
4498 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4499
4500 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4501
4502 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4503 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4504 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4505 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4506 with GDB".
4507
4508 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4509
4510 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4511 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4512 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4513 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4514 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4515 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4516 are created.
4517
4518 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4519
4520 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4521
4522 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4523 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4524 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4525
4526 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4527
4528 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4529 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4530
4531 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4532
4533 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4534 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4535 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4536
4537 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4538
4539 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4540 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4541
4542 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4543
4544 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4545 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4546 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4547
4548 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4549
4550 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4551 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4552 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4553
4554 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4555
4556 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4557
4558 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4559 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4560
4561 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4562
4563 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4564 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4565 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4566 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4567
4568 * Revised SPARC target
4569
4570 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4571 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4572 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4573 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4574 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4575
4576 * New C++ demangler
4577
4578 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4579 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4580 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4581 programs.
4582
4583 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4584
4585 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4586 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4587 encountered these.
4588
4589 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4590
4591 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4592 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4593 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4594 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4595 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4596 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4597 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4598 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4599 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4600
4601 * New native configurations
4602
4603 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4604 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4605 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4606 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4607 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4608
4609 * New debugging protocols
4610
4611 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4612
4613 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4614
4615 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4616 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4617 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4618
4619 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4620
4621 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4622 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4623 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4624 permanently REMOVED.
4625
4626 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4627 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4628 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4629 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4630 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4631 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4632 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4633 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4634 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4635 sonymips mips-sony-*
4636 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4637
4638 * REMOVED configurations and files
4639
4640 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4641 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4642 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4643 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4644 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4645 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4646 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4647 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4648 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4649 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4650 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4651 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4652 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4653 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4654 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4655 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4656 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4657
4658 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4659
4660 * Objective-C
4661
4662 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4663 integrated into GDB.
4664
4665 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4666
4667 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4668 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4669 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4670 backtraces.
4671
4672 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4673 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4674 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4675
4676 * Hosted file I/O.
4677
4678 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4679 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4680 remote protocol documentation for details.
4681
4682 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4683
4684 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4685 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4686 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4687 ppc32 on ppc64).
4688
4689 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4690
4691 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4692 per-thread variables.
4693
4694 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4695
4696 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4697 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4698
4699 * Separate debug info.
4700
4701 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4702 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4703 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4704 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4705 and optional debug files.
4706
4707 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4708
4709 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4710 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4711 debugger.
4712
4713 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4714 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4715
4716 * Java
4717
4718 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4719 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4720 considered "useable".
4721
4722 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4723
4724 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4725 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4726 kernel.
4727
4728 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4729
4730 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4731 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4732
4733 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4734
4735 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4736 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4737 command.
4738
4739 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4740
4741 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4742 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4743
4744 * Profiling support
4745
4746 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4747 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4748 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4749 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4750 data, for more informative profiling results.
4751
4752 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4753
4754 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4755 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4756 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4757
4758 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4759 removed.
4760
4761 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4762 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4763 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4764 in a subsequent -var-update.
4765
4766 * New native configurations.
4767
4768 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4769
4770 * Multi-arched targets.
4771
4772 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4773 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4774
4775 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4776
4777 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4778 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4779 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4780 permanently REMOVED.
4781
4782 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4783 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4784 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4785 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4786 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4787 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4788 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4789 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4790 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4791 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4792 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4793 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4794
4795 * REMOVED configurations and files
4796
4797 V850EA ISA
4798 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4799 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4800 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4801 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4802 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4803 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4804 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4805 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4806 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4807 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4808 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4809 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4810 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4811
4812 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4813
4814 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4815 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4816 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4817 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4818 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4819
4820 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4821
4822 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4823
4824 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4825 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4826 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4827 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4828 shared libs like mad''.
4829
4830 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4831
4832 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4833 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4834 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4835 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4836
4837 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4838
4839 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4840 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4841 they expand.
4842
4843 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4844 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4845
4846 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4847 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4848
4849 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4850 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4851 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4852 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4853
4854 * Multi-arched targets.
4855
4856 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4857 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4858 NEC V850 v850-*-*
4859 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4860 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4861 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4862
4863 * New targets.
4864
4865 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4866
4867
4868 * New native configurations
4869
4870 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4871 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4872 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4873 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4874
4875 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4876
4877 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4878 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4879 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4880 permanently REMOVED.
4881
4882 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4883 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4884 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4885 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4886 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4887 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4888 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4889 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4890 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4891 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4892 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4893 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4894 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4895
4896 * OBSOLETE languages
4897
4898 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4899
4900 * REMOVED configurations and files
4901
4902 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4903 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4904 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4905 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4906 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4907
4908 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4909
4910 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4911
4912 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4913 commands. The default is 1024.
4914
4915 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4916
4917 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4918
4919 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4920
4921 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4922 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4923 from a file into memory (restore).
4924
4925 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4926
4927 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4928 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4929 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4930
4931 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4932
4933 * New targets.
4934
4935 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
4936
4937 * Bug fixes
4938
4939 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4940 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4941 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4942
4943 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4944 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4945 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4946
4947 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
4948 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
4949 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
4950
4951 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
4952 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
4953 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
4954
4955 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
4956
4957 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
4958
4959 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
4960 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
4961 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
4962 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
4963 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
4964 (notably embedded) targets.
4965
4966 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
4967
4968 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
4969 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
4970 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
4971 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
4972
4973 * New command line option
4974
4975 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
4976
4977 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4978
4979 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
4980 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
4981 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
4982 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
4983 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4984 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4985 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4986 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4987 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4988 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4989
4990 * Changes in ARM configurations.
4991
4992 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
4993 configuration is fully multi-arch.
4994
4995 * New native configurations
4996
4997 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
4998 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
4999 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5000 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5001
5002 * New targets
5003
5004 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5005
5006 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5007
5008 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5009 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5010 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5011 permanently REMOVED.
5012
5013 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5014 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5015 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5016 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5017 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5018
5019 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5020
5021 * REMOVED configurations and files
5022
5023 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5024 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5025 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5026 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5027 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5028 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5029 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5030 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5031 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5032 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5033 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5034 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5035 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5036
5037 * Changes to command line processing
5038
5039 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5040 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5041
5042 * Changes to key bindings
5043
5044 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5045
5046 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5047
5048 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5049
5050 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5051 corrupted.
5052
5053 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5054
5055 Numerous documentation fixes.
5056
5057 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5058
5059 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5060
5061 * New native configurations
5062
5063 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5064 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5065 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5066 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5067 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5068 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5069
5070 * New targets
5071
5072 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5073 CRIS cris-axis
5074 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5075
5076 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5077
5078 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5079 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5080 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5081 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5082 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5083 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5084 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5085 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5086 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5087 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5088 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5089 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5090 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5091 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5092
5093 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5094 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5095
5096 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5097 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5098 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5099 permanently REMOVED.
5100
5101 * REMOVED configurations and files
5102
5103 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5104 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5105 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5106 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5107 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5108 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5109
5110 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5111
5112 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5113 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5114 present.
5115
5116 * Other news:
5117
5118 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5119
5120 * The MI enabled by default.
5121
5122 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5123 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5124 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5125 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5126 which is now deprecated.
5127
5128 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5129
5130 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5131 main features are supported:
5132
5133 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5134
5135 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5136 extension;
5137
5138 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5139
5140 - a Pascal expression parser.
5141
5142 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5143
5144 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5145
5146 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5147
5148 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5149 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5150
5151 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5152
5153 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5154
5155 * Changes in completion.
5156
5157 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5158 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5159 users expect at the shell prompt.
5160
5161 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5162 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5163 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5164 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5165 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5166 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5167 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5168
5169 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5170
5171 * New platform-independent commands:
5172
5173 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5174 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5175 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5176
5177 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5178
5179 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5180 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5181 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5182
5183 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5184
5185 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5186 multi-threaded programs though.
5187
5188 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5189
5190 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5191
5192 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5193 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5194 supported.)
5195
5196 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5197
5198 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5199 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5200 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5201 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5202 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5203 registers.
5204
5205 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5206 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5207 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5208
5209 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5210
5211 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5212 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5213
5214 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5215 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5216 IDT.
5217
5218 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5219 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5220 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5221 a given linear address.
5222
5223 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5224 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5225 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5226
5227 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5228
5229 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5230
5231 * Changes in documentation.
5232
5233 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5234 Documentation License.
5235
5236 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5237 manual.
5238
5239 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5240
5241 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5242 manual.
5243
5244 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5245 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5246 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5247
5248 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5249
5250 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5251 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5252 contents of this file.
5253
5254 * gdba.el deleted
5255
5256 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5257
5258 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5259
5260 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5261
5262 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5263 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5264 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5265 greater level of detail.
5266
5267 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5268
5269 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5270 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5271 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5272 written.
5273
5274 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5275
5276 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5277 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5278 machines ``out of the box''.
5279
5280 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5281 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5282 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5283 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5284 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5285
5286 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5287 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5288 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5289 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5290 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5291
5292 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5293 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5294 also works.
5295
5296 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5297 GDB.
5298
5299 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5300 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5301 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5302 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5303
5304 * New native configurations
5305
5306 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5307 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5308
5309 * New targets
5310
5311 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5312 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5313 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5314 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5315
5316 * OBSOLETE configurations
5317
5318 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5319 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5320 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5321 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5322 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5323
5324 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5325 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5326 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5327 be permanently REMOVED.
5328
5329 * Gould support removed
5330
5331 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5332
5333 * New features for SVR4
5334
5335 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5336 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5337 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5338
5339 * Many C++ enhancements
5340
5341 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5342 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5343
5344 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5345
5346 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5347 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5348 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5349 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5350
5351 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5352 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5353
5354 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
5355
5356 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5357 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5358 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5359
5360 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5361 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5362
5363 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5364
5365 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5366 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5367 include ``set remote P-packet''.
5368
5369 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5370
5371 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5372 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5373 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5374
5375 * ``apropos'' command added.
5376
5377 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5378 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5379 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5380
5381 * New MI interface
5382
5383 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5384 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
5385 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5386 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5387 enabled by configuring with:
5388
5389 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5390
5391 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5392
5393 * New native configurations
5394
5395 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5396 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5397 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5398
5399 * New targets
5400
5401 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5402 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5403 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5404
5405 * OBSOLETE configurations
5406
5407 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5408
5409 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5410 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5411 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5412 be permanently REMOVED.
5413
5414 * ANSI/ISO C
5415
5416 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5417 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5418 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5419 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5420 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5421 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5422 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5423 already.
5424
5425 * Readline 2.2
5426
5427 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5428
5429 * set extension-language
5430
5431 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5432 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5433 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5434 set extension-language .c c++
5435 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5436 and their associated languages.
5437
5438 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5439
5440 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5441 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5442 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5443
5444 set processor NAME
5445
5446 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5447 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5448
5449 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5450 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5451 403 IBM PowerPC 403
5452 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5453 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5454 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5455 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5456 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5457 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5458 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5459 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5460
5461 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5462 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5463 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5464 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5465
5466 * HP-UX support
5467
5468 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5469 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5470 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5471 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5472 for xdb and dbx commands.
5473
5474 * Catchpoints
5475
5476 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5477 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5478 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5479
5480 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5481 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5482 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5483
5484 * Debugging across forks
5485
5486 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5487 in the inferior.
5488
5489 * TUI
5490
5491 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5492 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5493 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5494
5495 * GDB remote protocol additions
5496
5497 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5498 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5499 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5500 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5501
5502 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5503 full 64-bit address. The command
5504
5505 set remoteaddresssize 32
5506
5507 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5508 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5509 will be discarded.
5510
5511 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5512 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5513
5514 maint packet heythere
5515
5516 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5517 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5518 time.
5519
5520 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5521 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5522 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5523
5524 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5525
5526 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5527 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5528 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5529
5530 * mask-address variable for Mips
5531
5532 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5533 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5534 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5535
5536 * Higher serial baud rates
5537
5538 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5539 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5540 to achieve all of these rates.)
5541
5542 * i960 simulator
5543
5544 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5545 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5546
5547
5548 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5549
5550 * New native configurations
5551
5552 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5553 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5554 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5555 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5556 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5557 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5558 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5559
5560 * New targets
5561
5562 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5563 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5564 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5565 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5566 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5567 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5568 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5569 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5570 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5571 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5572 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5573
5574 * New debugging protocols
5575
5576 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5577 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5578 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5579 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5580 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5581 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5582
5583 * DWARF 2
5584
5585 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5586 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5587 information.
5588
5589 * Java frontend
5590
5591 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5592 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5593
5594 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5595
5596 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5597 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5598 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5599
5600 * Live range splitting
5601
5602 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5603 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5604 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5605
5606 * Hurd support
5607
5608 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5609 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5610
5611 * ARM Thumb support
5612
5613 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5614 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5615 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5616 accordingly.
5617
5618 * MIPS16 support
5619
5620 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5621 instruction set.
5622
5623 * Overlay support
5624
5625 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5626 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5627 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5628 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5629 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5630 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5631
5632 * info symbol
5633
5634 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5635 the symbol at the specified address.
5636
5637 * Trace support
5638
5639 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5640 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5641 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5642 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5643 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5644
5645 * MIPS simulator
5646
5647 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5648 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5649 of most MIPS variants.
5650
5651 * Sparc simulator
5652
5653 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5654 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5655 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5656
5657 * set architecture
5658
5659 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5660 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5661 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5662 the possible architectures.
5663
5664 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5665
5666 * New native configurations
5667
5668 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5669 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5670 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5671 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5672 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5673 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5674
5675 * New targets
5676
5677 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5678 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5679 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5680 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5681 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5682 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
5683 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5684
5685 * PowerPC simulator
5686
5687 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5688 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5689 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5690 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5691 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5692
5693 * Solaris 2.5
5694
5695 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5696
5697 * Windows 95/NT native
5698
5699 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5700 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5701 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5702 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5703 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5704
5705 * dont-repeat command
5706
5707 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5708 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5709 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5710 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5711
5712 * Send break instead of ^C
5713
5714 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5715 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5716 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5717
5718 * Remote protocol timeout
5719
5720 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5721 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5722 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5723
5724 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5725
5726 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5727 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5728 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5729 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5730 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5731
5732 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5733 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5734 automatically on hpux10.
5735
5736 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5737
5738 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5739
5740 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5741
5742 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5743 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5744 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5745 every character. The default value is 1050.
5746
5747 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5748
5749 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5750 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5751 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5752 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5753 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5754 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5755
5756 * Speedups for remote debugging
5757
5758 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5759 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5760 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5761
5762 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5763
5764 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5765 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5766
5767 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5768
5769 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5770
5771 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5772 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5773
5774 * Remote targets use caching
5775
5776 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5777 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5778 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5779 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5780 off' turns the the data cache off.
5781
5782 * Remote targets may have threads
5783
5784 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5785 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5786 gdb/remote.c for details.
5787
5788 * NetROM support
5789
5790 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5791 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5792 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5793 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5794 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5795 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5796 sequence is something like
5797
5798 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5799 load <prog>
5800 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5801
5802 * Macintosh host
5803
5804 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5805 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5806 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5807 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5808 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5809 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5810 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5811 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5812
5813 * Autoconf
5814
5815 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5816 but does simplify configuration and building.
5817
5818 * hpux10
5819
5820 GDB now supports hpux10.
5821
5822 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5823
5824 * New native configurations
5825
5826 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5827 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5828 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5829 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5830
5831 * New targets
5832
5833 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5834 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5835 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5836 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5837 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5838
5839 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5840
5841 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5842 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5843 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5844 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5845 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5846
5847 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5848
5849 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5850 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5851 trivial example:
5852 define adder
5853 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5854
5855 To execute the command use:
5856 adder 1 2 3
5857
5858 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5859 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5860 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5861
5862 * New `if' and `while' commands
5863
5864 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5865 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5866 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5867 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5868 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5869 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5870 if the expression is zero.
5871
5872 * Fortran source language mode
5873
5874 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5875 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5876 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5877 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5878 Fortran compilers.
5879
5880 * Better HPUX support
5881
5882 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5883 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5884 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5885 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5886 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5887
5888 adb -w a.out
5889 __dld_flags?W 0x5
5890 control-d
5891
5892 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5893 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5894
5895 adb -w a.out
5896 __dld_flags?W 0x4
5897 control-d
5898
5899 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5900 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5901 external linkage.
5902
5903 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5904 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5905
5906 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5907
5908 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5909 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5910 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5911 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5912 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5913 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5914
5915 * New DOS host serial code
5916
5917 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5918 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5919 a PC's serial port.
5920
5921 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5922
5923 * New "complete" command
5924
5925 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5926 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5927
5928 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5929
5930 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5931 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5932
5933 * Breakpoint hit counts
5934
5935 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5936 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5937 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5938 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5939 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5940 that breakpoint.
5941
5942 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5943
5944 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5945 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5946 arrays actually contain only short strings.
5947
5948 * Shared library breakpoints
5949
5950 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
5951 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
5952
5953 * Hardware watchpoints
5954
5955 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
5956 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
5957
5958 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
5959
5960 * Annotations
5961
5962 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
5963 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
5964
5965 * Improved Irix 5 support
5966
5967 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
5968
5969 * Improved HPPA support
5970
5971 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
5972
5973 * New native configurations
5974
5975 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
5976 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5977 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
5978 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
5979
5980 * New targets
5981
5982 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5983 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5984 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
5985
5986 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5987
5988 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5989 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
5990
5991 * Fixes
5992
5993 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
5994 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
5995
5996 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
5997
5998 * Irix 5 is now supported
5999
6000 * HPPA support
6001
6002 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6003 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6004 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6005 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6006 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6007
6008
6009 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6010
6011 * User visible changes:
6012
6013 * Remote Debugging
6014
6015 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6016 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6017 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6018 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6019 debugging info for the mips target).
6020
6021 * DEC Alpha native support
6022
6023 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6024 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6025 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6026 Alpha-specific notes.
6027
6028 * Preliminary thread implementation
6029
6030 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6031
6032 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6033
6034 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6035 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6036 for details).
6037
6038 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6039
6040 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6041 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6042 call methods, ...etc.
6043
6044 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6045
6046 * User visible changes:
6047
6048 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6049 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6050 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6051 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6052
6053 Filename completion now works.
6054
6055 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6056 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6057 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6058
6059 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6060 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6061 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6062 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6063 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6064
6065 * DEC alpha support
6066
6067 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6068 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6069
6070
6071 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6072
6073 * Testsuite
6074
6075 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6076 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6077 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6078
6079 * C++ demangling
6080
6081 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6082 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6083 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6084 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6085 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6086
6087 * Simulators
6088
6089 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6090 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6091 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6092
6093 * New targets supported
6094
6095 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6096 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6097 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6098 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6099 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6100
6101 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6102 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6103 GO32 memory extender.
6104
6105 * New remote protocols
6106
6107 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6108
6109 * New source languages supported
6110
6111 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6112 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6113 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6114
6115
6116 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6117
6118 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6119
6120 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6121 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6122 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6123 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6124 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6125 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6126
6127 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6128
6129 * Faster and better demangling
6130
6131 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6132 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6133 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6134 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6135 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6136 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6137 symbol lookups.
6138
6139 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6140 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6141 compiler does not actually implement.
6142
6143 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6144
6145 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6146 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6147 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6148 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6149 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6150 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6151 fix.
6152
6153 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6154 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6155
6156 * Improved configure script
6157
6158 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6159 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6160 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6161 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6162
6163 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6164 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6165 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6166 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6167 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6168 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6169
6170 * Documentation improvements
6171
6172 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6173 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6174 before submitting changes.
6175
6176 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6177 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6178 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6179 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6180 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6181
6182 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6183 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6184 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6185 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6186 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6187 around this problem.
6188
6189 * New features
6190
6191 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6192 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6193 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6194 the target program.
6195
6196 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6197 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6198
6199 * New native hosts supported
6200
6201 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6202 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6203
6204 * New targets supported
6205
6206 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6207
6208 * New file formats supported
6209
6210 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6211 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6212
6213 * Major bug fixes
6214
6215 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6216
6217 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6218 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6219
6220 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6221 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6222 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6223
6224 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6225 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6226
6227 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6228 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6229 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6230 libraries.
6231
6232 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6233 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6234 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6235 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6236 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6237
6238 * Internal improvements
6239
6240 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6241 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6242
6243 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6244 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6245 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6246 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6247 shared code that handles any of them.
6248
6249 * New command line options
6250
6251 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6252
6253 * Mmalloc licensing
6254
6255 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6256 General Public License.
6257
6258 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6259
6260 * Host/native/target split
6261
6262 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6263 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6264 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6265 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6266 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6267
6268 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6269 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6270 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6271 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6272 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6273 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6274 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6275
6276 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6277 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6278 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6279
6280 * New hosts supported
6281
6282 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6283 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6284 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6285
6286 * New targets supported
6287
6288 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6289 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6290
6291 * New native hosts supported
6292
6293 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6294 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6295 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6296
6297 * New file formats supported
6298
6299 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6300 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6301 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6302
6303 * New commands
6304
6305 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6306 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6307 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6308
6309 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6310
6311 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6312 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6313 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6314 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6315
6316 * C++ improvements
6317
6318 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6319 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6320 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6321
6322 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6323
6324 * Major bug fixes
6325
6326 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6327 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6328 by the compiler.
6329
6330 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6331 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6332
6333 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6334 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6335 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6336 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6337 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6338 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6339
6340 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6341 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6342 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6343 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6344
6345 * AMD 29k support
6346
6347 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6348 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6349 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6350 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6351 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6352
6353 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6354 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6355 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6356 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6357
6358 * Remote interfaces
6359
6360 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6361 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6362 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6363 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6364 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6365 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6366 each instruction being stepped through.
6367
6368 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6369 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6370
6371 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6372 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6373 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6374 processor with a serial port.
6375
6376 * Configuration
6377
6378 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6379 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6380 supported, and what files each one uses.
6381
6382 * Library changes
6383
6384 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6385 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6386 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6387 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6388
6389 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6390 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6391 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6392 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6393
6394 * Documentation
6395
6396 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6397 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6398 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6399 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6400 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6401 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6402
6403 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6404
6405
6406 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6407
6408 * Better support for C++ function names
6409
6410 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6411 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6412 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6413 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6414 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6415
6416 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6417 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6418 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6419 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6420 for the list of formats.
6421
6422 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6423
6424 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6425 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6426 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6427 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6428 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6429 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6430 this problem.)
6431
6432 * New 'maintenance' command
6433
6434 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6435 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6436 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6437
6438 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6439 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6440 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6441 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6442 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6443 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6444
6445 The following commands are new:
6446
6447 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6448 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6449 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6450
6451 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6452
6453 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6454 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6455 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6456 read after argv processing.
6457
6458 * New hosts supported
6459
6460 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6461
6462 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6463
6464 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6465 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6466 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6467 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6468 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6469 It costs extra.
6470
6471 * New targets supported
6472
6473 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6474
6475 * More smarts about finding #include files
6476
6477 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6478 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6479 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6480 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6481 the one that contains your sources.
6482
6483 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6484 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6485 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6486
6487 * Interesting infernals change
6488
6489 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6490 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6491 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6492 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6493
6494 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6495
6496 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6497 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6498 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6499
6500 See the ChangeLog for details.
6501
6502 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6503
6504 * New machines supported (host and target)
6505
6506 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6507
6508 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6509
6510 * New malloc package
6511
6512 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6513 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6514 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6515 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6516 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6517 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6518
6519 * info proc
6520
6521 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6522 'help info proc' for details.
6523
6524 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6525
6526 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6527 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6528 possible.
6529
6530 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6531
6532 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6533 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6534 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6535 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6536 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6537 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6538
6539 * Cross byte order fixes
6540
6541 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6542 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6543
6544 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6545
6546 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6547 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6548 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6549 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6550 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6551 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6552 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6553 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6554 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6555 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6556
6557 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6558 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6559 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6560 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6561
6562 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6563 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6564 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6565 use is:
6566
6567 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6568
6569 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6570 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6571 shared across multiple host platforms.
6572
6573 * longjmp() handling
6574
6575 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6576 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6577 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6578 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6579
6580 * Solaris 2.0
6581
6582 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6583 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6584 reading symbols.
6585
6586 * Bug fixes
6587
6588 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6589 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6590 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6591
6592 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6593
6594 * New machines supported (host and target)
6595
6596 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6597 (except core files)
6598 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6599 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6600
6601 * New machines supported (target)
6602
6603 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6604
6605 * C++ support
6606
6607 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6608 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6609 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6610
6611 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6612 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6613 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6614 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6615 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6616 released.
6617
6618 * New features for SVR4
6619
6620 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6621 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6622 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6623
6624 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6625 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6626 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6627
6628 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6629 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6630
6631 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6632
6633 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6634 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6635 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6636 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6637 same code linked statically.
6638
6639 * New Getopt
6640
6641 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6642 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6643 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6644 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6645 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6646 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6647
6648 * Bugs fixed
6649
6650 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6651 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6652 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6653
6654
6655 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6656
6657 * New machines supported (host and target)
6658
6659 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6660 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6661 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6662
6663 * Almost SCO Unix support
6664
6665 We had hoped to support:
6666 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6667 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6668 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6669 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6670
6671 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6672
6673 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6674 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6675 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6676 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6677 reqired (if any).
6678
6679 * New Readline
6680
6681 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6682 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6683 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6684
6685 * Bugs fixed
6686
6687 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6688 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6689 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6690
6691 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6692
6693 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6694 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6695 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6696
6697 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6698 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6699 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6700 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6701 version 2.
6702
6703 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6704 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6705 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6706 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6707 situation somewhat.
6708
6709 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6710 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6711 methods.
6712
6713 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6714 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6715 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6716
6717
6718 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6719
6720 * Improved configuration
6721
6722 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6723 Porting BFD is simpler.
6724
6725 * Stepping improved
6726
6727 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6728 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6729 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6730 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6731
6732 * Bug fixing
6733
6734 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6735
6736 * New host supported (not target)
6737
6738 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6739
6740
6741 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6742
6743 * Multiple source language support
6744
6745 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6746 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6747 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6748 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6749 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6750 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6751
6752 * GDB and Modula-2
6753
6754 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6755 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6756 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6757 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6758
6759 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6760 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6761 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6762
6763 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6764 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6765
6766 * set write on/off
6767
6768 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6769 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6770 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6771 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6772 effect immediately.
6773
6774 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6775
6776 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6777 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6778 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6779 examining core files.
6780
6781 * set listsize
6782
6783 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6784 The default is 10.
6785
6786 * New machines supported (host and target)
6787
6788 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6789 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6790 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6791
6792 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6793
6794 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6795
6796 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6797
6798 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6799 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6800 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6801
6802 * New remote interfaces
6803
6804 AMD 29000 Adapt
6805 AMD 29000 Minimon
6806
6807
6808 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6809
6810 * New Facilities
6811
6812 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6813
6814 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6815 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6816 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6817 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6818 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6819 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6820 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6821 stub on the target system.
6822
6823 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6824
6825 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6826 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6827 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6828
6829 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6830 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6831
6832
6833 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6834
6835 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6836 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6837
6838 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6839 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6840 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6841
6842 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6843 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6844 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6845 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6846
6847 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6848 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6849 it is already running. Default is ON.
6850
6851 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6852 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6853 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6854 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6855 Default is ON.
6856
6857 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6858 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6859 or the value of the environment variable
6860 GDBHISTFILE.
6861
6862 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6863 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6864 HISTSIZE.
6865
6866 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6867 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6868 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6869
6870 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6871 history expansion will be performed on
6872 command line input. The default is OFF.
6873
6874 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6875 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6876 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6877
6878 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6879 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6880 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6881 variable TERM.
6882
6883 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6884 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6885 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6886 variable TERM.
6887
6888 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6889 ``set width'' instead.
6890
6891 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6892 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6893 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6894 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6895
6896 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6897 is OFF.
6898
6899 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6900 "raw" form if off.
6901
6902 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6903 like instructions.
6904
6905 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6906
6907
6908 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6909
6910 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6911 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6912 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6913 window.
6914
6915
6916 * Support for Shared Libraries
6917
6918 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6919 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6920 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6921 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6922 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6923 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6924 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6925 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6926
6927 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6928 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6929 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6930
6931 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6932
6933
6934 * Watchpoints
6935
6936 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6937 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6938 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6939 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6940 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6941 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6942
6943 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6944
6945 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6946
6947 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6948 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6949 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6950
6951
6952 * C++ multiple inheritance
6953
6954 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
6955 for C++ programs.
6956
6957 * C++ exception handling
6958
6959 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
6960 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
6961 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
6962 handler's context).
6963
6964 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
6965 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
6966 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
6967
6968 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
6969 current stack frame.
6970
6971
6972 * Minor command changes
6973
6974 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
6975 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
6976 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
6977
6978 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
6979 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
6980 frames without printing.
6981
6982 * New directory command
6983
6984 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6985 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6986 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6987 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6988 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6989
6990 * Configuring GDB for compilation
6991
6992 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
6993 for more details.
6994
6995 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
6996 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
6997 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
6998 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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