1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.3
6 * New native configurations
8 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
9 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
13 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
15 * Deprecated commands removed
17 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
21 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
22 othernames set arm disassembler
23 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
24 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
25 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
28 * New BSD user-level threads support
30 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
31 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
34 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
35 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
36 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
38 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
39 are not yet supported.
41 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
42 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
44 * REMOVED configurations and files
46 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
47 Renesas H8/300S h8300*-*-*
48 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
49 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
50 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
53 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
55 * New command line option
57 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
60 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
62 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
63 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
64 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
65 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
66 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
68 * Internationalization
70 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
71 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
72 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
76 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
77 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
78 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
80 * New native configurations
82 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
86 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
87 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
89 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
91 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
92 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
93 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
96 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
97 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
98 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
110 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
111 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
113 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
115 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
116 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
117 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
127 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
129 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
131 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
132 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
135 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
137 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
138 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
139 IRIX long double values).
143 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
144 command. This problem has been fixed.
146 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
148 * Fix for ``many threads''
150 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
151 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
154 ptrace: No such process.
155 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
157 This problem has been fixed.
159 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
161 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
164 * New ``start'' command.
166 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
168 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
170 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
171 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
172 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
174 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
175 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
176 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
177 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
178 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
179 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
180 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
181 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
182 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
184 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
186 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
187 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
188 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
189 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
190 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
192 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
193 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
194 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
196 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
198 * New native configurations
200 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
201 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
202 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
203 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
204 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
205 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
206 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
208 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
210 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
211 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
212 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
213 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
214 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
215 work, was also included.
217 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
218 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
228 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
229 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
231 * REMOVED configurations and files
233 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
234 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
235 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
236 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
237 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
238 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
239 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
240 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
241 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
243 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
245 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
247 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
249 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
250 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
251 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
252 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
255 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
257 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
258 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
259 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
260 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
261 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
262 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
265 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
267 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
269 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
270 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
271 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
273 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
275 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
276 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
278 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
280 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
281 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
282 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
284 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
286 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
287 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
289 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
291 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
292 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
293 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
295 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
297 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
298 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
299 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
301 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
303 * Removed --with-mmalloc
305 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
306 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
308 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
310 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
311 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
312 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
313 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
315 * Revised SPARC target
317 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
318 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
319 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
320 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
321 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
325 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
326 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
327 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
330 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
332 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
333 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
336 * C++ nested types and namespaces
338 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
339 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
340 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
341 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
342 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
343 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
344 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
345 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
346 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
348 * New native configurations
350 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
351 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
352 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
353 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
354 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
356 * New debugging protocols
358 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
360 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
362 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
363 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
364 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
366 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
368 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
369 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
370 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
373 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
374 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
375 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
376 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
377 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
378 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
379 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
380 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
381 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
383 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
385 * REMOVED configurations and files
387 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
388 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
389 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
390 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
391 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
392 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
393 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
394 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
395 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
396 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
397 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
398 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
399 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
400 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
401 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
402 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
403 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
405 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
409 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
412 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
414 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
415 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
416 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
419 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
420 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
425 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
426 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
427 remote protocol documentation for details.
429 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
431 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
432 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
433 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
436 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
438 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
439 per-thread variables.
441 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
443 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
444 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
446 * Separate debug info.
448 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
449 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
450 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
451 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
452 and optional debug files.
454 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
456 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
457 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
460 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
461 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
465 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
466 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
467 considered "useable".
469 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
471 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
472 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
475 * GDB supports logging output to a file
477 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
478 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
480 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
482 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
483 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
486 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
488 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
489 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
493 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
494 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
495 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
496 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
497 data, for more informative profiling results.
499 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
501 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
502 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
503 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
505 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
508 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
509 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
510 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
511 in a subsequent -var-update.
513 * New native configurations.
515 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
517 * Multi-arched targets.
519 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
520 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
522 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
524 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
525 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
526 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
529 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
530 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
531 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
532 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
533 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
534 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
535 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
536 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
537 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
538 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
539 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
540 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
542 * REMOVED configurations and files
545 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
546 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
547 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
548 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
549 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
550 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
552 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
553 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
554 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
555 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
556 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
557 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
559 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
561 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
562 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
563 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
564 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
565 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
567 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
569 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
571 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
572 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
573 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
574 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
575 shared libs like mad''.
577 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
579 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
580 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
581 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
582 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
584 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
586 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
587 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
590 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
591 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
593 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
594 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
596 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
597 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
598 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
599 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
601 * Multi-arched targets.
603 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
604 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
606 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
607 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
608 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
612 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
615 * New native configurations
617 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
618 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
619 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
620 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
622 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
624 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
625 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
626 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
629 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
630 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
631 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
632 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
633 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
634 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
635 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
636 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
637 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
638 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
640 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
641 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
645 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
647 * REMOVED configurations and files
649 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
650 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
651 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
652 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
653 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
655 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
657 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
659 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
660 commands. The default is 1024.
662 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
664 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
666 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
668 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
669 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
670 from a file into memory (restore).
672 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
674 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
675 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
676 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
678 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
686 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
687 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
688 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
690 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
691 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
692 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
694 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
695 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
696 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
698 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
699 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
700 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
702 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
704 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
706 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
707 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
708 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
709 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
710 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
711 (notably embedded) targets.
713 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
715 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
716 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
717 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
718 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
720 * New command line option
722 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
724 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
726 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
727 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
728 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
729 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
730 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
731 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
732 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
733 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
734 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
735 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
737 * Changes in ARM configurations.
739 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
740 configuration is fully multi-arch.
742 * New native configurations
744 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
745 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
746 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
747 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
751 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
753 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
755 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
756 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
757 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
760 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
761 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
762 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
763 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
764 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
766 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
768 * REMOVED configurations and files
770 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
772 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
773 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
774 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
775 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
776 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
777 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
778 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
779 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
780 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
781 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
782 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
784 * Changes to command line processing
786 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
787 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
789 * Changes to key bindings
791 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
793 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
795 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
797 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
800 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
802 Numerous documentation fixes.
804 Numerous testsuite fixes.
806 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
808 * New native configurations
810 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
811 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
812 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
813 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
815 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
819 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
821 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
823 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
825 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
826 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
827 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
828 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
829 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
831 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
832 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
833 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
834 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
835 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
836 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
837 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
838 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
840 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
841 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
843 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
844 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
845 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
848 * REMOVED configurations and files
850 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
851 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
853 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
857 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
859 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
860 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
865 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
867 * The MI enabled by default.
869 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
870 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
871 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
872 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
873 which is now deprecated.
875 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
877 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
878 main features are supported:
880 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
882 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
885 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
887 - a Pascal expression parser.
889 However, some important features are not yet supported.
891 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
893 - there are some problems with boolean types;
895 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
896 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
898 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
900 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
902 * Changes in completion.
904 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
905 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
906 users expect at the shell prompt.
908 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
909 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
910 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
911 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
912 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
913 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
914 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
916 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
918 * New platform-independent commands:
920 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
921 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
922 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
924 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
926 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
927 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
928 many threads as your system allows you to have.
930 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
932 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
933 multi-threaded programs though.
935 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
937 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
939 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
940 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
943 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
945 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
946 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
947 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
948 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
949 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
952 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
953 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
954 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
956 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
958 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
959 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
961 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
962 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
965 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
966 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
967 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
968 a given linear address.
970 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
971 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
972 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
974 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
976 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
978 * Changes in documentation.
980 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
981 Documentation License.
983 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
986 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
988 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
991 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
992 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
993 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
995 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
997 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
998 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
999 contents of this file.
1003 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1005 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1007 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1009 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1010 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1011 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1012 greater level of detail.
1014 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1016 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1017 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1018 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1021 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1023 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1024 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1025 machines ``out of the box''.
1027 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1028 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1029 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1030 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1031 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1033 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1034 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1035 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1036 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1037 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1039 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1040 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1043 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1046 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1047 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1048 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1049 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1051 * New native configurations
1053 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1054 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1058 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1059 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1060 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1061 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1063 * OBSOLETE configurations
1065 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1066 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1068 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1071 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1072 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1073 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1074 be permanently REMOVED.
1076 * Gould support removed
1078 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1080 * New features for SVR4
1082 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1083 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1084 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1086 * Many C++ enhancements
1088 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1089 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1091 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1093 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1094 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1095 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1096 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1098 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1099 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1101 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1103 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1104 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1105 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1107 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1108 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1110 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1112 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1113 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1114 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1116 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1118 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1119 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1120 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1122 * ``apropos'' command added.
1124 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1125 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1126 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1130 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1131 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1132 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1133 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1134 enabled by configuring with:
1136 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1138 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1140 * New native configurations
1142 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1143 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1144 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1148 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1149 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1150 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1152 * OBSOLETE configurations
1154 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1156 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1157 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1158 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1159 be permanently REMOVED.
1163 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1164 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1165 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1166 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1167 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1168 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1169 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1174 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1176 * set extension-language
1178 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1179 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1180 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1181 set extension-language .c c++
1182 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1183 and their associated languages.
1185 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1187 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1188 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1189 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1193 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1194 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1196 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1197 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1199 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1200 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1201 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1202 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1203 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1204 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1205 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1206 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1208 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1209 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1210 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1211 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1215 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1216 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1217 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1218 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1219 for xdb and dbx commands.
1223 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1224 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1225 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1227 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1228 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1229 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1231 * Debugging across forks
1233 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1238 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1239 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1240 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1242 * GDB remote protocol additions
1244 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1245 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1246 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1247 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1249 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1250 full 64-bit address. The command
1252 set remoteaddresssize 32
1254 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1255 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1258 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1259 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1261 maint packet heythere
1263 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1264 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1267 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1268 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1269 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1271 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1273 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1274 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1275 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1277 * mask-address variable for Mips
1279 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1280 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1281 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1283 * Higher serial baud rates
1285 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1286 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1287 to achieve all of these rates.)
1291 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1292 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1295 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1297 * New native configurations
1299 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1300 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1301 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1302 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1303 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1304 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1305 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1309 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1310 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1311 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1312 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1313 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1314 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1315 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1316 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1317 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1318 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1319 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1321 * New debugging protocols
1323 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1324 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1325 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1326 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1327 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1328 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1332 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1333 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1338 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1339 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1341 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1343 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1344 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1345 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1347 * Live range splitting
1349 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1350 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1351 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1355 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1356 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1360 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1361 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1362 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1367 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1372 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1373 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1374 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1375 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1376 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1377 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1381 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1382 the symbol at the specified address.
1386 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1387 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1388 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1389 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1390 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1394 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1395 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1396 of most MIPS variants.
1400 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1401 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1402 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1406 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1407 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1408 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1409 the possible architectures.
1411 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1413 * New native configurations
1415 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1416 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1417 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1418 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1419 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1420 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1424 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1425 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1426 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1427 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1428 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1430 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1434 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1435 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1436 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1437 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1438 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1442 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1444 * Windows 95/NT native
1446 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1447 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1448 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1449 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1450 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1452 * dont-repeat command
1454 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1455 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1456 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1457 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1459 * Send break instead of ^C
1461 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1462 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1463 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1465 * Remote protocol timeout
1467 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1468 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1469 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1471 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1473 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1474 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1475 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1476 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1477 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1479 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1480 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1481 automatically on hpux10.
1483 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1485 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1487 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1489 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1490 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1491 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1492 every character. The default value is 1050.
1494 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1496 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1497 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1498 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1499 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1500 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1501 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1503 * Speedups for remote debugging
1505 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1506 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1507 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1509 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1511 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1512 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1514 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1516 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1518 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1519 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1521 * Remote targets use caching
1523 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1524 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1525 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1526 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1527 off' turns the the data cache off.
1529 * Remote targets may have threads
1531 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1532 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1533 gdb/remote.c for details.
1537 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1538 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1539 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1540 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1541 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1542 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1543 sequence is something like
1545 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1547 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1551 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1552 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1553 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1554 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1555 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1556 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1557 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1558 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1562 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1563 but does simplify configuration and building.
1567 GDB now supports hpux10.
1569 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1571 * New native configurations
1573 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1574 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1575 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1576 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1580 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1581 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1582 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1583 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1586 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1588 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1589 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1590 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1591 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1592 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1594 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1596 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1597 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1600 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1602 To execute the command use:
1605 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1606 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1607 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1609 * New `if' and `while' commands
1611 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1612 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1613 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1614 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1615 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1616 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1617 if the expression is zero.
1619 * Fortran source language mode
1621 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1622 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1623 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1624 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1627 * Better HPUX support
1629 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1630 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1631 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1632 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1633 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1639 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1640 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1646 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1647 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1650 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1651 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1653 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1655 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1656 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1657 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1658 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1659 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1660 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1662 * New DOS host serial code
1664 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1665 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1668 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1670 * New "complete" command
1672 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1673 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1675 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1677 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1678 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1680 * Breakpoint hit counts
1682 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1683 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1684 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1685 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1686 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1689 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1691 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1692 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1693 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1695 * Shared library breakpoints
1697 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1698 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1700 * Hardware watchpoints
1702 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1703 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1705 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1709 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1710 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1712 * Improved Irix 5 support
1714 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1716 * Improved HPPA support
1718 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1720 * New native configurations
1722 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1723 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1724 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1725 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1729 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1730 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1733 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1735 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1736 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1740 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1741 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1743 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1745 * Irix 5 is now supported
1749 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1750 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1751 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1752 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1753 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1756 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1758 * User visible changes:
1762 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1763 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1764 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1765 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1766 debugging info for the mips target).
1768 * DEC Alpha native support
1770 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1771 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1772 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1773 Alpha-specific notes.
1775 * Preliminary thread implementation
1777 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1779 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1781 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1782 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1785 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1787 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1788 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1789 call methods, ...etc.
1791 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1793 * User visible changes:
1795 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1796 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1797 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1798 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1800 Filename completion now works.
1802 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1803 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1804 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1806 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1807 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1808 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1809 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1810 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1814 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1815 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1818 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1822 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1823 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1824 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1828 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1829 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1830 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1831 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1832 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1836 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1837 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1838 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1840 * New targets supported
1842 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1843 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1844 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1845 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1846 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1848 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1849 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1850 GO32 memory extender.
1852 * New remote protocols
1854 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1856 * New source languages supported
1858 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1859 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1860 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1863 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1865 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1867 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1868 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1869 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1870 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1871 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1872 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1874 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1876 * Faster and better demangling
1878 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1879 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1880 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1881 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1882 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1883 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1886 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1887 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1888 compiler does not actually implement.
1890 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1892 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1893 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1894 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1895 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1896 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1897 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1900 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1901 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1903 * Improved configure script
1905 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1906 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1907 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1908 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1910 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1911 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1912 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1913 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1914 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1915 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1917 * Documentation improvements
1919 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1920 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1921 before submitting changes.
1923 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1924 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1925 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1926 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1927 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1929 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1930 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1931 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1932 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1933 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1934 around this problem.
1938 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1939 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1940 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1943 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1944 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1946 * New native hosts supported
1948 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1949 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1951 * New targets supported
1953 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1955 * New file formats supported
1957 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1958 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1962 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1964 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1965 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1967 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1968 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1969 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1971 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1972 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1974 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1975 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1976 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1979 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1980 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1981 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1982 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1983 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1985 * Internal improvements
1987 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1988 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1990 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1991 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1992 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1993 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1994 shared code that handles any of them.
1996 * New command line options
1998 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2002 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2003 General Public License.
2005 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2007 * Host/native/target split
2009 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2010 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2011 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2012 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2013 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2015 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2016 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2017 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2018 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2019 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2020 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2021 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2023 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2024 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2025 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2027 * New hosts supported
2029 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2030 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2031 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2033 * New targets supported
2035 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2036 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2038 * New native hosts supported
2040 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2041 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2042 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2044 * New file formats supported
2046 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2047 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2048 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2052 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2053 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2054 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2056 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2058 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2059 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2060 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2061 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2065 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2066 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2067 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2069 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2073 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2074 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2077 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2078 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2080 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2081 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2082 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2083 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2084 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2085 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2087 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2088 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2089 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2090 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2094 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2095 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2096 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2097 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2098 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2100 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2101 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2102 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2103 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2107 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2108 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2109 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2110 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2111 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2112 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2113 each instruction being stepped through.
2115 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2116 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2118 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2119 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2120 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2121 processor with a serial port.
2125 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2126 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2127 supported, and what files each one uses.
2131 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2132 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2133 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2134 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2136 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2137 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2138 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2139 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2143 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2144 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2145 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2146 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2147 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2148 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2150 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2153 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2155 * Better support for C++ function names
2157 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2158 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2159 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2160 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2161 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2163 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2164 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2165 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2166 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2167 for the list of formats.
2169 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2171 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2172 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2173 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2174 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2175 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2176 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2179 * New 'maintenance' command
2181 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2182 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2183 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2185 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2186 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2187 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2188 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2189 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2190 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2192 The following commands are new:
2194 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2195 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2196 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2198 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2200 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2201 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2202 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2203 read after argv processing.
2205 * New hosts supported
2207 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2209 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2211 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2212 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2213 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2214 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2215 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2218 * New targets supported
2220 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2222 * More smarts about finding #include files
2224 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2225 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2226 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2227 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2228 the one that contains your sources.
2230 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2231 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2232 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2234 * Interesting infernals change
2236 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2237 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2238 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2239 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2241 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2243 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2244 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2245 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2247 See the ChangeLog for details.
2249 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2251 * New machines supported (host and target)
2253 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2255 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2257 * New malloc package
2259 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2260 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2261 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2262 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2263 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2264 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2268 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2269 'help info proc' for details.
2271 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2273 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2274 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2277 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2279 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2280 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2281 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2282 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2283 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2284 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2286 * Cross byte order fixes
2288 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2289 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2291 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2293 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2294 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2295 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2296 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2297 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2298 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2299 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2300 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2301 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2302 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2304 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2305 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2306 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2307 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2309 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2310 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2311 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2314 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2316 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2317 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2318 shared across multiple host platforms.
2320 * longjmp() handling
2322 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2323 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2324 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2325 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2329 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2330 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2335 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2336 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2337 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2339 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2341 * New machines supported (host and target)
2343 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2345 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2346 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2348 * New machines supported (target)
2350 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2354 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2355 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2356 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2358 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2359 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2360 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2361 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2362 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2365 * New features for SVR4
2367 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2368 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2369 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2371 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2372 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2373 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2375 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2376 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2378 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2380 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2381 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2382 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2383 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2384 same code linked statically.
2388 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2389 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2390 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2391 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2392 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2393 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2397 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2398 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2399 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2402 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2404 * New machines supported (host and target)
2406 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2407 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2408 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2410 * Almost SCO Unix support
2412 We had hoped to support:
2413 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2414 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2415 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2416 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2418 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2420 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2421 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2422 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2423 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2428 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2429 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2430 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2434 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2435 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2436 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2438 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2440 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2441 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2442 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2444 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2445 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2446 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2447 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2450 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2451 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2452 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2453 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2456 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2457 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2460 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2461 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2462 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2465 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2467 * Improved configuration
2469 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2470 Porting BFD is simpler.
2474 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2475 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2476 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2477 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2481 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2483 * New host supported (not target)
2485 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2488 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2490 * Multiple source language support
2492 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2493 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2494 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2495 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2496 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2497 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2501 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2502 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2503 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2504 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2506 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2507 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2508 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2510 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2511 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2515 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2516 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2517 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2518 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2521 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2523 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2524 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2525 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2526 examining core files.
2530 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2533 * New machines supported (host and target)
2535 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2536 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2537 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2539 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2541 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2543 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2545 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2546 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2547 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2549 * New remote interfaces
2555 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2559 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2561 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2562 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2563 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2564 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2565 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2566 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2567 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2568 stub on the target system.
2570 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2572 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2573 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2574 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2576 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2577 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2580 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2582 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2583 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2585 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2586 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2587 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2589 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2590 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2591 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2592 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2594 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2595 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2596 it is already running. Default is ON.
2598 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2599 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2600 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2601 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2604 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2605 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2606 or the value of the environment variable
2609 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2610 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2613 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2614 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2615 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2617 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2618 history expansion will be performed on
2619 command line input. The default is OFF.
2621 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2622 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2623 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2625 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2626 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2627 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2630 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2631 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2632 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2635 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2636 ``set width'' instead.
2638 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2639 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2640 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2641 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2643 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2646 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2649 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2652 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2655 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2657 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2658 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2659 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2663 * Support for Shared Libraries
2665 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2666 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2667 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2668 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2669 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2670 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2671 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2672 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2674 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2675 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2676 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2678 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2683 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2684 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2685 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2686 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2687 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2688 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2690 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2692 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2694 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2695 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2696 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2699 * C++ multiple inheritance
2701 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2704 * C++ exception handling
2706 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2707 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2708 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2711 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2712 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2713 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2715 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2716 current stack frame.
2719 * Minor command changes
2721 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2722 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2723 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2725 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2726 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2727 frames without printing.
2729 * New directory command
2731 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2732 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2733 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2734 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2735 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2737 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2739 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2742 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2743 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2744 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2745 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob