1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.0:
6 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
8 * GDB supports logging output to a file
10 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
11 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
13 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
15 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
16 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
19 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
21 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
22 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
26 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
27 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
28 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
29 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
30 data, for more informative profiling results.
32 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
34 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
35 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
36 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
38 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
41 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
42 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
43 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
44 in a subsequent -var-update.
46 * Multi-arched targets.
48 HP/PA HPUX11, 32bit ABI (partial) hppa*-*-hpux* except hppa*64*-*-hpux11*
49 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
51 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
53 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
54 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
55 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
58 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
59 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
60 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
61 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
62 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
63 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
64 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
65 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
66 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
67 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
68 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
69 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
71 * REMOVED configurations and files
74 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
75 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
76 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
77 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
78 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
79 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
81 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
82 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
83 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
84 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
85 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
86 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
88 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
90 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
91 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
92 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
93 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
94 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
96 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
98 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
100 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
101 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
102 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
103 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
104 shared libs like mad''.
106 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
108 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
109 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
110 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
111 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
113 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
115 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
116 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
119 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
120 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
122 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
123 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
125 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
126 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
127 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
128 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
130 * Multi-arched targets.
132 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
133 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
135 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
136 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
137 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
141 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
144 * New native configurations
146 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
147 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
148 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
149 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
151 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
153 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
154 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
155 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
158 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
159 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
160 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
161 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
162 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
163 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
164 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
165 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
166 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
167 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
169 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
170 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
174 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
176 * REMOVED configurations and files
178 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
179 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
180 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
181 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
182 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
184 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
186 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
188 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
189 commands. The default is 1024.
191 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
193 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
195 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
197 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
198 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
199 from a file into memory (restore).
201 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
203 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
204 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
205 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
207 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
215 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
216 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
217 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
219 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
220 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
221 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
223 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
224 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
225 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
227 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
228 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
229 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
231 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
233 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
235 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
236 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
237 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
238 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
239 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
240 (notably embedded) targets.
242 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
244 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
245 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
246 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
247 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
249 * New command line option
251 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
253 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
255 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
256 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
257 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
258 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
259 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
260 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
261 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
262 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
263 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
264 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
266 * Changes in ARM configurations.
268 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
269 configuration is fully multi-arch.
271 * New native configurations
273 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
274 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
275 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
276 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
280 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
282 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
284 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
285 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
286 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
289 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
290 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
291 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
292 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
293 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
295 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
297 * REMOVED configurations and files
299 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
301 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
302 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
303 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
304 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
305 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
306 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
307 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
308 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
309 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
310 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
311 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
313 * Changes to command line processing
315 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
316 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
318 * Changes to key bindings
320 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
322 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
324 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
326 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
329 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
331 Numerous documentation fixes.
333 Numerous testsuite fixes.
335 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
337 * New native configurations
339 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
340 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
341 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
342 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
344 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
348 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
350 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
352 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
354 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
355 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
356 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
357 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
358 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
360 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
361 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
362 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
363 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
364 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
365 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
366 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
367 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
369 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
370 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
372 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
373 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
374 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
377 * REMOVED configurations and files
379 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
380 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
382 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
386 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
388 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
389 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
394 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
396 * The MI enabled by default.
398 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
399 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
400 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
401 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
402 which is now deprecated.
404 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
406 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
407 main features are supported:
409 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
411 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
414 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
416 - a Pascal expression parser.
418 However, some important features are not yet supported.
420 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
422 - there are some problems with boolean types;
424 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
425 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
427 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
429 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
431 * Changes in completion.
433 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
434 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
435 users expect at the shell prompt.
437 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
438 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
439 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
440 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
441 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
442 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
443 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
445 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
447 * New platform-independent commands:
449 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
450 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
451 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
453 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
455 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
456 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
457 many threads as your system allows you to have.
459 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
461 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
462 multi-threaded programs though.
464 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
466 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
468 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
469 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
472 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
474 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
475 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
476 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
477 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
478 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
481 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
482 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
483 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
485 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
487 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
488 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
490 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
491 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
494 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
495 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
496 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
497 a given linear address.
499 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
500 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
501 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
503 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
505 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
507 * Changes in documentation.
509 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
510 Documentation License.
512 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
515 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
517 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
520 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
521 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
522 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
524 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
526 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
527 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
528 contents of this file.
532 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
534 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
536 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
538 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
539 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
540 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
541 greater level of detail.
543 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
545 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
546 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
547 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
550 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
552 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
553 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
554 machines ``out of the box''.
556 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
557 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
558 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
559 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
560 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
562 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
563 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
564 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
565 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
566 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
568 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
569 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
572 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
575 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
576 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
577 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
578 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
580 * New native configurations
582 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
583 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
587 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
588 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
589 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
590 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
592 * OBSOLETE configurations
594 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
595 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
597 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
600 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
601 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
602 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
603 be permanently REMOVED.
605 * Gould support removed
607 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
609 * New features for SVR4
611 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
612 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
613 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
615 * Many C++ enhancements
617 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
618 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
620 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
622 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
623 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
624 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
625 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
627 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
628 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
630 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
632 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
633 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
634 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
636 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
637 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
639 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
641 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
642 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
643 include ``set remote P-packet''.
645 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
647 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
648 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
649 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
651 * ``apropos'' command added.
653 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
654 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
655 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
659 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
660 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
661 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
662 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
663 enabled by configuring with:
665 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
667 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
669 * New native configurations
671 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
672 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
673 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
677 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
678 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
679 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
681 * OBSOLETE configurations
683 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
685 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
686 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
687 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
688 be permanently REMOVED.
692 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
693 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
694 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
695 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
696 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
697 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
698 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
703 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
705 * set extension-language
707 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
708 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
709 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
710 set extension-language .c c++
711 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
712 and their associated languages.
714 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
716 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
717 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
718 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
722 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
723 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
725 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
726 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
728 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
729 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
730 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
731 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
732 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
733 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
734 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
735 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
737 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
738 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
739 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
740 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
744 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
745 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
746 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
747 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
748 for xdb and dbx commands.
752 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
753 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
754 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
756 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
757 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
758 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
760 * Debugging across forks
762 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
767 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
768 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
769 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
771 * GDB remote protocol additions
773 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
774 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
775 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
776 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
778 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
779 full 64-bit address. The command
781 set remoteaddresssize 32
783 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
784 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
787 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
788 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
790 maint packet heythere
792 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
793 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
796 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
797 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
798 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
800 * Tracing can collect general expressions
802 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
803 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
804 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
806 * mask-address variable for Mips
808 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
809 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
810 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
812 * Higher serial baud rates
814 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
815 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
816 to achieve all of these rates.)
820 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
821 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
824 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
826 * New native configurations
828 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
829 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
830 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
831 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
832 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
833 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
834 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
838 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
839 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
840 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
841 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
842 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
843 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
844 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
845 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
846 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
847 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
848 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
850 * New debugging protocols
852 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
853 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
854 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
855 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
856 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
857 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
861 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
862 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
867 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
868 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
870 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
872 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
873 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
874 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
876 * Live range splitting
878 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
879 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
880 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
884 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
885 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
889 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
890 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
891 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
896 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
901 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
902 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
903 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
904 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
905 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
906 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
910 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
911 the symbol at the specified address.
915 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
916 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
917 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
918 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
919 file tracepoint.c for more details.
923 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
924 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
925 of most MIPS variants.
929 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
930 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
931 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
935 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
936 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
937 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
938 the possible architectures.
940 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
942 * New native configurations
944 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
945 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
946 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
947 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
948 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
949 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
953 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
954 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
955 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
956 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
957 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
959 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
963 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
964 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
965 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
966 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
967 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
971 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
973 * Windows 95/NT native
975 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
976 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
977 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
978 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
979 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
981 * dont-repeat command
983 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
984 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
985 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
986 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
988 * Send break instead of ^C
990 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
991 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
992 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
994 * Remote protocol timeout
996 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
997 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
998 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1000 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1002 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1003 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1004 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1005 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1006 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1008 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1009 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1010 automatically on hpux10.
1012 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1014 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1016 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1018 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1019 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1020 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1021 every character. The default value is 1050.
1023 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1025 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1026 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1027 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1028 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1029 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1030 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1032 * Speedups for remote debugging
1034 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1035 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1036 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1038 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1040 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1041 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1043 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1045 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1047 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1048 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1050 * Remote targets use caching
1052 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1053 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1054 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1055 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1056 off' turns the the data cache off.
1058 * Remote targets may have threads
1060 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1061 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1062 gdb/remote.c for details.
1066 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1067 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1068 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1069 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1070 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1071 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1072 sequence is something like
1074 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1076 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1080 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1081 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1082 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1083 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1084 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1085 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1086 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1087 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1091 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1092 but does simplify configuration and building.
1096 GDB now supports hpux10.
1098 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1100 * New native configurations
1102 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1103 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1104 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1105 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1109 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1110 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1111 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1112 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1115 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1117 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1118 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1119 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1120 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1121 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1123 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1125 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1126 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1129 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1131 To execute the command use:
1134 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1135 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1136 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1138 * New `if' and `while' commands
1140 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1141 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1142 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1143 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1144 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1145 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1146 if the expression is zero.
1148 * Fortran source language mode
1150 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1151 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1152 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1153 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1156 * Better HPUX support
1158 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1159 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1160 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1161 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1162 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1168 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1169 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1175 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1176 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1179 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1180 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1182 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1184 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1185 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1186 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1187 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1188 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1189 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1191 * New DOS host serial code
1193 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1194 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1197 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1199 * New "complete" command
1201 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1202 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1204 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1206 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1207 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1209 * Breakpoint hit counts
1211 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1212 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1213 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1214 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1215 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1218 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1220 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1221 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1222 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1224 * Shared library breakpoints
1226 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1227 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1229 * Hardware watchpoints
1231 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1232 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1234 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1238 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1239 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1241 * Improved Irix 5 support
1243 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1245 * Improved HPPA support
1247 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1249 * New native configurations
1251 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1252 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1253 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1254 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1258 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1259 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1262 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1264 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1265 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1269 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1270 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1272 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1274 * Irix 5 is now supported
1278 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1279 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1280 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1281 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1282 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1285 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1287 * User visible changes:
1291 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1292 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1293 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1294 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1295 debugging info for the mips target).
1297 * DEC Alpha native support
1299 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1300 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1301 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1302 Alpha-specific notes.
1304 * Preliminary thread implementation
1306 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1308 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1310 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1311 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1314 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1316 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1317 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1318 call methods, ...etc.
1320 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1322 * User visible changes:
1324 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1325 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1326 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1327 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1329 Filename completion now works.
1331 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1332 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1333 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1335 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1336 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1337 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1338 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1339 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1343 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1344 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1347 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1351 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1352 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1353 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1357 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1358 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1359 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1360 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1361 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1365 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1366 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1367 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1369 * New targets supported
1371 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1372 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1373 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1374 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1375 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1377 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1378 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1379 GO32 memory extender.
1381 * New remote protocols
1383 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1385 * New source languages supported
1387 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1388 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1389 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1392 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1394 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1396 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1397 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1398 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1399 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1400 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1401 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1403 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1405 * Faster and better demangling
1407 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1408 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1409 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1410 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1411 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1412 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1415 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1416 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1417 compiler does not actually implement.
1419 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1421 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1422 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1423 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1424 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1425 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1426 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1429 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1430 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1432 * Improved configure script
1434 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1435 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1436 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1437 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1439 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1440 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1441 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1442 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1443 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1444 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1446 * Documentation improvements
1448 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1449 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1450 before submitting changes.
1452 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1453 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1454 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1455 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1456 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1458 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1459 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1460 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1461 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1462 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1463 around this problem.
1467 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1468 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1469 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1472 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1473 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1475 * New native hosts supported
1477 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1478 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1480 * New targets supported
1482 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1484 * New file formats supported
1486 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1487 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1491 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1493 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1494 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1496 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1497 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1498 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1500 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1501 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1503 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1504 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1505 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1508 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1509 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1510 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1511 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1512 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1514 * Internal improvements
1516 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1517 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1519 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1520 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1521 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1522 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1523 shared code that handles any of them.
1525 * New command line options
1527 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1531 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1532 General Public License.
1534 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1536 * Host/native/target split
1538 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1539 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1540 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1541 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1542 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1544 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1545 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1546 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1547 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1548 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1549 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1550 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1552 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1553 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1554 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1556 * New hosts supported
1558 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1559 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1560 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1562 * New targets supported
1564 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1565 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1567 * New native hosts supported
1569 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1570 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1571 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1573 * New file formats supported
1575 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1576 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1577 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1581 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1582 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1583 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1585 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1587 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1588 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1589 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1590 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1594 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1595 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1596 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1598 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1602 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1603 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1606 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1607 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1609 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1610 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1611 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1612 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1613 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1614 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1616 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1617 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1618 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1619 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1623 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1624 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1625 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1626 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1627 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1629 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1630 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1631 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1632 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1636 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1637 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1638 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1639 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1640 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1641 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1642 each instruction being stepped through.
1644 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1645 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1647 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1648 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1649 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1650 processor with a serial port.
1654 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1655 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1656 supported, and what files each one uses.
1660 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1661 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1662 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1663 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1665 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1666 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1667 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1668 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1672 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1673 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1674 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1675 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1676 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1677 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1679 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1682 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1684 * Better support for C++ function names
1686 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1687 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1688 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1689 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1690 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1692 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1693 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1694 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1695 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1696 for the list of formats.
1698 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1700 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1701 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1702 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1703 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1704 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1705 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1708 * New 'maintenance' command
1710 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1711 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1712 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1714 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1715 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1716 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1717 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1718 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1719 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1721 The following commands are new:
1723 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1724 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1725 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1727 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1729 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1730 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1731 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1732 read after argv processing.
1734 * New hosts supported
1736 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1738 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1740 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1741 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1742 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1743 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1744 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1747 * New targets supported
1749 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1751 * More smarts about finding #include files
1753 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1754 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1755 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1756 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1757 the one that contains your sources.
1759 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1760 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1761 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1763 * Interesting infernals change
1765 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1766 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1767 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1768 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1770 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1772 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1773 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1774 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1776 See the ChangeLog for details.
1778 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1780 * New machines supported (host and target)
1782 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1784 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1786 * New malloc package
1788 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1789 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1790 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1791 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1792 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1793 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1797 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1798 'help info proc' for details.
1800 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1802 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1803 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1806 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1808 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1809 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1810 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1811 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1812 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1813 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1815 * Cross byte order fixes
1817 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1818 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1820 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1822 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1823 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1824 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1825 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1826 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1827 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1828 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1829 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1830 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1831 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1833 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1834 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1835 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1836 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1838 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1839 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1840 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1843 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1845 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1846 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1847 shared across multiple host platforms.
1849 * longjmp() handling
1851 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1852 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1853 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1854 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1858 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1859 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1864 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1865 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1866 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1868 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1870 * New machines supported (host and target)
1872 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1874 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1875 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1877 * New machines supported (target)
1879 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1883 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1884 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1885 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1887 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1888 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1889 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1890 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1891 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1894 * New features for SVR4
1896 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1897 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1898 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1900 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1901 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1902 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1904 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1905 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1907 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1909 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1910 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1911 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1912 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1913 same code linked statically.
1917 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1918 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1919 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1920 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1921 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1922 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1926 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1927 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1928 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1931 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1933 * New machines supported (host and target)
1935 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1936 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1937 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1939 * Almost SCO Unix support
1941 We had hoped to support:
1942 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1943 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1944 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1945 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1947 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1949 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1950 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1951 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1952 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1957 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1958 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1959 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1963 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1964 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1965 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1967 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1969 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1970 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1971 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1973 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1974 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1975 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1976 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1979 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1980 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1981 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1982 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1985 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1986 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1989 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1990 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1991 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1994 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1996 * Improved configuration
1998 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1999 Porting BFD is simpler.
2003 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2004 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2005 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2006 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2010 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2012 * New host supported (not target)
2014 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2017 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2019 * Multiple source language support
2021 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2022 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2023 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2024 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2025 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2026 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2030 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2031 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2032 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2033 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2035 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2036 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2037 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2039 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2040 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2044 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2045 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2046 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2047 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2050 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2052 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2053 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2054 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2055 examining core files.
2059 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2062 * New machines supported (host and target)
2064 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2065 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2066 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2068 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2070 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2072 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2074 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2075 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2076 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2078 * New remote interfaces
2084 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2088 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2090 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2091 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2092 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2093 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2094 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2095 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2096 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2097 stub on the target system.
2099 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2101 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2102 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2103 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2105 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2106 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2109 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2111 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2112 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2114 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2115 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2116 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2118 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2119 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2120 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2121 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2123 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2124 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2125 it is already running. Default is ON.
2127 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2128 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2129 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2130 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2133 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2134 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2135 or the value of the environment variable
2138 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2139 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2142 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2143 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2144 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2146 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2147 history expansion will be performed on
2148 command line input. The default is OFF.
2150 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2151 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2152 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2154 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2155 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2156 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2159 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2160 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2161 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2164 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2165 ``set width'' instead.
2167 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2168 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2169 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2170 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2172 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2175 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2178 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2181 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2184 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2186 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2187 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2188 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2192 * Support for Shared Libraries
2194 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2195 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2196 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2197 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2198 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2199 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2200 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2201 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2203 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2204 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2205 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2207 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2212 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2213 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2214 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2215 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2216 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2217 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2219 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2221 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2223 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2224 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2225 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2228 * C++ multiple inheritance
2230 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2233 * C++ exception handling
2235 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2236 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2237 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2240 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2241 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2242 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2244 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2245 current stack frame.
2248 * Minor command changes
2250 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2251 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2252 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2254 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2255 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2256 frames without printing.
2258 * New directory command
2260 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2261 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2262 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2263 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2264 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2266 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2268 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2271 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2272 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2273 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2274 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob