1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
7 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
8 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
9 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
11 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
12 now complete on file names.
14 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
15 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
16 For instance, consider:
18 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
19 # struct example variable;
22 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
23 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
25 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
26 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
29 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
30 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
31 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
36 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
39 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
40 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
41 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
44 Obtains additional operating system information
48 Read or write additional signal information.
50 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
52 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
53 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
54 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
56 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
59 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
60 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
62 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
63 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
64 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
66 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
67 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
69 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
71 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
73 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
74 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
76 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
77 list of section offsets.
79 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
80 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
83 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
84 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
85 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
87 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
89 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
90 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
92 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
93 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
94 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
96 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
97 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
99 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
104 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
105 available is determined at configure time.
107 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
109 * Ada tasking support
111 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
115 Print the list of Ada tasks.
117 Print detailed information about task number N.
119 Print the task number of the current task.
121 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
123 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
124 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
128 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
130 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
132 maint set python print-stack
133 maint show python print-stack
134 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
137 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
139 set print symbol-loading
140 show print symbol-loading
141 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
145 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
150 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
152 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
153 show multiple-symbols
154 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
155 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
156 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
158 set breakpoint always-inserted
159 show breakpoint always-inserted
160 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
161 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
162 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
164 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
165 show arm fallback-mode
166 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
168 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
169 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
170 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
171 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
173 set disable-randomization
174 show disable-randomization
175 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
176 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
177 multiple debugging sessions.
180 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
181 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
182 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
183 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
185 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
187 set tcp connect-timeout
188 show tcp connect-timeout
189 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
190 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
191 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
196 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
200 Show operating system information about processes.
202 * New native configurations
204 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
206 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
210 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
211 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
217 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
219 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
221 * New native configurations
223 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
224 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
228 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
229 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
231 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
233 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
234 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
235 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
236 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
238 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
239 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
241 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
244 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
245 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
246 and in inlined functions.
248 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
249 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
250 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
252 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
254 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
255 registers on PowerPC targets.
257 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
258 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
260 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
261 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
263 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
264 extended-remote mode.
266 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
267 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
268 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
269 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
271 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
272 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
273 target architectures.
275 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
276 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
277 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
278 stored in two consecutive float registers.
280 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
283 * Improved support for debugging Ada
284 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
286 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
287 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
288 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
289 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
291 - Improved command completion in Ada
294 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
299 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
300 show print frame-arguments
301 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
302 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
307 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
314 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
323 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
326 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
330 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
332 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
334 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
335 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
336 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
338 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
339 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
340 -Bsymbolic linker option.
342 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
343 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
346 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
347 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
349 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
350 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
352 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
354 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
355 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
356 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
358 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
359 automatically displayed as character or string data.
361 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
362 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
365 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
366 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
367 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
369 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
372 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
373 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
374 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
376 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
378 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
380 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
381 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
382 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
384 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
385 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
387 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
388 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
389 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
390 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
391 Windows and SymbianOS).
393 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
394 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
396 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
397 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
403 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
404 when debugging using remote targets.
406 set mem inaccessible-by-default
407 show mem inaccessible-by-default
408 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
409 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
410 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
411 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
412 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
414 set breakpoint auto-hw
415 show breakpoint auto-hw
416 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
417 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
418 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
419 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
420 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
421 including "next" and "finish".
424 catch exception unhandled
425 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
428 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
432 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
433 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
434 an alias to "set sysroot".
437 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
438 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
441 * New native configurations
443 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
448 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
449 not query the target for its built-in description.
453 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
454 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
455 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
460 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
461 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
464 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
469 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
470 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
472 qXfer:libraries:read:
473 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
474 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
475 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
476 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
480 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
489 i[34567]86-*-netware*
490 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
491 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
493 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
496 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
497 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
506 * Other removed features
513 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
520 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
525 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
526 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
531 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
532 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
534 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
536 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
537 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
538 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
539 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
543 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
544 in debugging information.
548 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
549 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
551 set mips stack-arg-size
552 set mips saved-gpreg-size
554 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
556 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
561 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
563 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
564 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
565 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
567 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
568 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
571 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
572 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
574 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
575 stub provides the required support.
577 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
578 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
583 unset substitute-path
585 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
586 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
587 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
588 between compilation and debugging.
592 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
593 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
594 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
598 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
600 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
601 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
603 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
608 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
609 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
610 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
611 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
615 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
616 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
618 qXfer:memory-map:read:
619 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
620 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
625 Erase and program a flash memory device.
627 * Removed remote packets
630 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
631 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
633 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
637 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
639 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
643 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
644 only if it doesn't already have a value.
646 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
648 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
650 restart <n> Return the program state to a
651 previously saved state.
653 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
655 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
657 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
658 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
660 info forks List forks of the user program that
661 are available to be debugged.
663 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
664 forks of the user program that are
665 available to be debugged.
667 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
668 that are available to be debugged (and
669 kill the forked process).
671 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
672 that are available to be debugged (and
673 allow the process to continue).
677 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
679 * Improved Windows host support
681 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
682 native console support, and remote communications using either
683 network sockets or serial ports.
685 * Improved Modula-2 language support
687 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
688 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
689 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
690 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
691 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
692 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
696 The ARM rdi-share module.
698 The Netware NLM debug server.
700 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
702 * New native configurations
704 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
705 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
709 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
711 * New command line options
713 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
714 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
715 the child (debugged) program exited with.
716 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
717 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
718 specified multiple times and in conjunction
719 with the --command (-x) option.
721 * Deprecated commands removed
723 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
727 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
728 othernames set arm disassembler
729 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
730 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
731 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
734 * New BSD user-level threads support
736 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
737 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
740 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
741 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
742 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
744 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
745 are not yet supported.
747 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
748 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
750 * REMOVED configurations and files
752 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
753 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
754 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
756 * New "set print array-indexes" command
758 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
759 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
762 * VAX floating point support
764 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
766 * User-defined command support
768 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
769 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
770 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
772 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
774 * New command line option
776 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
779 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
781 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
782 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
783 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
784 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
785 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
787 * Internationalization
789 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
790 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
791 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
795 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
796 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
797 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
799 * New native configurations
801 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
805 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
806 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
808 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
810 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
811 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
812 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
815 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
816 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
817 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
829 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
830 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
832 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
834 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
835 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
836 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
846 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
848 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
850 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
851 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
854 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
856 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
857 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
858 IRIX long double values).
862 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
863 command. This problem has been fixed.
865 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
867 * Fix for ``many threads''
869 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
870 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
873 ptrace: No such process.
874 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
876 This problem has been fixed.
878 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
880 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
883 * New ``start'' command.
885 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
887 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
889 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
890 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
891 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
893 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
894 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
895 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
896 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
897 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
898 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
899 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
900 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
901 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
903 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
905 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
906 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
907 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
908 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
909 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
911 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
912 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
913 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
915 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
917 * New native configurations
919 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
920 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
921 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
922 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
923 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
924 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
925 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
927 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
929 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
930 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
931 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
932 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
933 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
934 work, was also included.
936 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
937 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
947 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
948 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
950 * REMOVED configurations and files
952 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
953 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
954 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
955 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
956 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
957 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
958 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
959 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
960 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
962 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
964 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
966 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
968 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
969 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
970 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
971 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
974 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
976 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
977 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
978 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
979 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
980 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
981 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
984 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
986 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
988 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
989 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
990 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
992 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
994 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
995 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
997 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
999 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1000 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1001 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1003 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1005 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1006 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1008 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1010 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1011 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1012 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1014 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1016 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1017 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1018 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1020 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1022 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1024 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1025 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1027 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1029 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1030 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1031 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1032 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1034 * Revised SPARC target
1036 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1037 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1038 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1039 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1040 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1044 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1045 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1046 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1049 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1051 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1052 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1055 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1057 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1058 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1059 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1060 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1061 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1062 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1063 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1064 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1065 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1067 * New native configurations
1069 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1070 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1071 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1072 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1073 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1075 * New debugging protocols
1077 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1079 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1081 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1082 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1083 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1085 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1087 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1088 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1089 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1090 permanently REMOVED.
1092 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1093 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1094 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1095 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1096 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1097 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1098 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1099 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1100 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1101 sonymips mips-sony-*
1102 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1104 * REMOVED configurations and files
1106 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1107 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1108 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1109 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1110 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1111 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1112 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1113 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1114 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1115 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1116 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1117 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1118 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1119 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1120 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1121 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1122 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1124 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1128 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1129 integrated into GDB.
1131 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1133 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1134 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1135 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1138 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1139 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1140 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1144 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1145 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1146 remote protocol documentation for details.
1148 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1150 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1151 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1152 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1155 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1157 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1158 per-thread variables.
1160 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1162 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1163 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1165 * Separate debug info.
1167 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1168 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1169 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1170 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1171 and optional debug files.
1173 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1175 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1176 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1179 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1180 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1184 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1185 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1186 considered "useable".
1188 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1190 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1191 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1194 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1196 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1197 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1199 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1201 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1202 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1205 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1207 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1208 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1212 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1213 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1214 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1215 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1216 data, for more informative profiling results.
1218 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1220 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1221 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1222 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1224 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1227 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1228 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1229 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1230 in a subsequent -var-update.
1232 * New native configurations.
1234 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1236 * Multi-arched targets.
1238 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1239 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1241 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1243 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1244 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1245 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1246 permanently REMOVED.
1248 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1249 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1250 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1251 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1252 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1253 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1254 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1255 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1256 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1257 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1258 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1259 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1261 * REMOVED configurations and files
1264 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1265 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1266 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1267 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1268 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1269 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1271 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1272 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1273 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1274 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1275 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1276 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1278 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1280 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1281 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1282 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1283 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1284 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1286 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1288 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1290 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1291 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1292 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1293 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1294 shared libs like mad''.
1296 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1298 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1299 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1300 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1301 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1303 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1305 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1306 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1309 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1310 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1312 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1313 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1315 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1316 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1317 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1318 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1320 * Multi-arched targets.
1322 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1323 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1325 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1326 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1327 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1331 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1334 * New native configurations
1336 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1337 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1338 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1339 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1341 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1343 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1344 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1345 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1346 permanently REMOVED.
1348 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1349 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1350 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1351 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1352 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1353 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1354 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1355 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1356 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1357 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1359 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1360 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1362 * OBSOLETE languages
1364 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1366 * REMOVED configurations and files
1368 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1369 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1370 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1371 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1372 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1374 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1376 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1378 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1379 commands. The default is 1024.
1381 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1383 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1385 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1387 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1388 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1389 from a file into memory (restore).
1391 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1393 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1394 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1395 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1397 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1405 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1406 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1407 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1409 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1410 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1411 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1413 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1414 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1415 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1417 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1418 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1419 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1421 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1423 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1425 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1426 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1427 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1428 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1429 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1430 (notably embedded) targets.
1432 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1434 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1435 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1436 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1437 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1439 * New command line option
1441 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1443 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1445 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1446 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1447 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1448 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1449 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1450 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1451 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1452 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1453 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1454 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1456 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1458 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1459 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1461 * New native configurations
1463 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1464 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1465 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1466 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1470 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1472 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1474 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1475 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1476 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1477 permanently REMOVED.
1479 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1480 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1481 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1482 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1483 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1485 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1487 * REMOVED configurations and files
1489 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1491 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1492 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1493 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1494 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1495 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1496 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1497 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1498 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1499 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1500 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1501 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1503 * Changes to command line processing
1505 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1506 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1508 * Changes to key bindings
1510 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1512 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1514 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1516 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1519 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1521 Numerous documentation fixes.
1523 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1525 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1527 * New native configurations
1529 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1530 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1531 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1532 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1533 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1534 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1538 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1540 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1542 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1544 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1545 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1546 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1547 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1548 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1550 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1551 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1552 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1553 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1554 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1555 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1556 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1557 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1559 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1560 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1562 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1563 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1564 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1565 permanently REMOVED.
1567 * REMOVED configurations and files
1569 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1570 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1572 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1576 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1578 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1579 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1584 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1586 * The MI enabled by default.
1588 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1589 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1590 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1591 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1592 which is now deprecated.
1594 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1596 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1597 main features are supported:
1599 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1601 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1604 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1606 - a Pascal expression parser.
1608 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1610 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1612 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1614 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1615 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1617 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1619 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1621 * Changes in completion.
1623 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1624 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1625 users expect at the shell prompt.
1627 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1628 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1629 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1630 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1631 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1632 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1633 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1635 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1637 * New platform-independent commands:
1639 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1640 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1641 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1643 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1645 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1646 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1647 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1649 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1651 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1652 multi-threaded programs though.
1654 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1656 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1658 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1659 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1662 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1664 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1665 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1666 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1667 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1668 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1671 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1672 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1673 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1675 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1677 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1678 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1680 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1681 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1684 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1685 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1686 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1687 a given linear address.
1689 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1690 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1691 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1693 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1695 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1697 * Changes in documentation.
1699 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1700 Documentation License.
1702 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1705 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1707 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1710 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1711 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1712 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1714 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1716 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1717 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1718 contents of this file.
1722 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1724 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1726 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1728 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1729 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1730 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1731 greater level of detail.
1733 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1735 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1736 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1737 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1740 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1742 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1743 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1744 machines ``out of the box''.
1746 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1747 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1748 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1749 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1750 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1752 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1753 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1754 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1755 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1756 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1758 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1759 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1762 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1765 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1766 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1767 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1768 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1770 * New native configurations
1772 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1773 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1777 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1778 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1779 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1780 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1782 * OBSOLETE configurations
1784 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1785 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1787 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1790 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1791 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1792 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1793 be permanently REMOVED.
1795 * Gould support removed
1797 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1799 * New features for SVR4
1801 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1802 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1803 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1805 * Many C++ enhancements
1807 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1808 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1810 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1812 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1813 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1814 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1815 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1817 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1818 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1820 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1822 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1823 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1824 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1826 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1827 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1829 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1831 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1832 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1833 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1835 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1837 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1838 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1839 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1841 * ``apropos'' command added.
1843 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1844 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1845 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1849 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1850 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1851 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1852 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1853 enabled by configuring with:
1855 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1857 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1859 * New native configurations
1861 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1862 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1863 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1867 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1868 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1869 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1871 * OBSOLETE configurations
1873 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1875 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1876 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1877 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1878 be permanently REMOVED.
1882 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1883 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1884 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1885 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1886 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1887 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1888 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1893 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1895 * set extension-language
1897 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1898 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1899 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1900 set extension-language .c c++
1901 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1902 and their associated languages.
1904 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1906 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1907 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1908 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1912 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1913 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1915 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1916 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1918 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1919 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1920 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1921 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1922 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1923 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1924 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1925 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1927 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1928 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1929 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1930 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1934 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1935 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1936 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1937 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1938 for xdb and dbx commands.
1942 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1943 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1944 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1946 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1947 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1948 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1950 * Debugging across forks
1952 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1957 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1958 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1959 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1961 * GDB remote protocol additions
1963 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1964 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1965 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1966 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1968 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1969 full 64-bit address. The command
1971 set remoteaddresssize 32
1973 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1974 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1977 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1978 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1980 maint packet heythere
1982 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1983 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1986 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1987 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1988 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1990 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1992 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1993 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1994 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1996 * mask-address variable for Mips
1998 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1999 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2000 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2002 * Higher serial baud rates
2004 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2005 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2006 to achieve all of these rates.)
2010 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2011 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2014 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2016 * New native configurations
2018 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2019 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2020 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2021 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2022 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2023 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2024 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2028 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2029 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2030 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2031 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2032 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2033 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2034 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2035 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2036 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2037 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2038 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2040 * New debugging protocols
2042 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2043 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2044 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2045 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2046 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2047 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2051 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2052 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2057 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2058 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2060 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2062 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2063 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2064 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2066 * Live range splitting
2068 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2069 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2070 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2074 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2075 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2079 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2080 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2081 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2086 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2091 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2092 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2093 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2094 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2095 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2096 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2100 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2101 the symbol at the specified address.
2105 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2106 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2107 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2108 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2109 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2113 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2114 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2115 of most MIPS variants.
2119 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2120 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2121 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2125 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2126 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2127 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2128 the possible architectures.
2130 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2132 * New native configurations
2134 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2135 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2136 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2137 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2138 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2139 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2143 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2144 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2145 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2146 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2147 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2149 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2153 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2154 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2155 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2156 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2157 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2161 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2163 * Windows 95/NT native
2165 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2166 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2167 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2168 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2169 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2171 * dont-repeat command
2173 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2174 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2175 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2176 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2178 * Send break instead of ^C
2180 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2181 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2182 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2184 * Remote protocol timeout
2186 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2187 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2188 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2190 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2192 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2193 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2194 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2195 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2196 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2198 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2199 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2200 automatically on hpux10.
2202 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2204 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2206 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2208 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2209 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2210 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2211 every character. The default value is 1050.
2213 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2215 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2216 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2217 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2218 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2219 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2220 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2222 * Speedups for remote debugging
2224 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2225 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2226 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2228 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2230 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2231 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2233 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2235 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2237 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2238 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2240 * Remote targets use caching
2242 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2243 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2244 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2245 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2246 off' turns the the data cache off.
2248 * Remote targets may have threads
2250 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2251 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2252 gdb/remote.c for details.
2256 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2257 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2258 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2259 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2260 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2261 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2262 sequence is something like
2264 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2266 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2270 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2271 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2272 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2273 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2274 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2275 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2276 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2277 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2281 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2282 but does simplify configuration and building.
2286 GDB now supports hpux10.
2288 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2290 * New native configurations
2292 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2293 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2294 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2295 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2299 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2300 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2301 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2302 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2305 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2307 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2308 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2309 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2310 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2311 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2313 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2315 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2316 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2319 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2321 To execute the command use:
2324 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2325 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2326 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2328 * New `if' and `while' commands
2330 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2331 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2332 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2333 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2334 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2335 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2336 if the expression is zero.
2338 * Fortran source language mode
2340 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2341 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2342 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2343 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2346 * Better HPUX support
2348 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2349 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2350 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2351 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2352 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2358 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2359 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2365 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2366 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2369 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2370 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2372 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2374 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2375 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2376 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2377 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2378 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2379 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2381 * New DOS host serial code
2383 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2384 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2387 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2389 * New "complete" command
2391 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2392 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2394 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2396 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2397 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2399 * Breakpoint hit counts
2401 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2402 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2403 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2404 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2405 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2408 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2410 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2411 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2412 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2414 * Shared library breakpoints
2416 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2417 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2419 * Hardware watchpoints
2421 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2422 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2424 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2428 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2429 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2431 * Improved Irix 5 support
2433 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2435 * Improved HPPA support
2437 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2439 * New native configurations
2441 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2442 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2443 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2444 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2448 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2449 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2452 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2454 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2455 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2459 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2460 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2462 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2464 * Irix 5 is now supported
2468 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2469 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2470 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2471 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2472 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2475 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2477 * User visible changes:
2481 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2482 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2483 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2484 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2485 debugging info for the mips target).
2487 * DEC Alpha native support
2489 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2490 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2491 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2492 Alpha-specific notes.
2494 * Preliminary thread implementation
2496 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2498 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2500 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2501 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2504 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2506 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2507 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2508 call methods, ...etc.
2510 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2512 * User visible changes:
2514 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2515 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2516 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2517 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2519 Filename completion now works.
2521 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2522 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2523 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2525 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2526 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2527 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2528 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2529 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2533 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2534 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2537 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2541 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2542 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2543 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2547 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2548 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2549 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2550 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2551 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2555 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2556 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2557 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2559 * New targets supported
2561 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2562 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2563 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2564 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2565 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2567 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2568 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2569 GO32 memory extender.
2571 * New remote protocols
2573 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2575 * New source languages supported
2577 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2578 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2579 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2582 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2584 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2586 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2587 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2588 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2589 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2590 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2591 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2593 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2595 * Faster and better demangling
2597 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2598 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2599 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2600 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2601 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2602 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2605 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2606 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2607 compiler does not actually implement.
2609 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2611 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2612 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2613 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2614 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2615 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2616 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2619 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2620 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2622 * Improved configure script
2624 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2625 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2626 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2627 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2629 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2630 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2631 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2632 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2633 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2634 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2636 * Documentation improvements
2638 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2639 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2640 before submitting changes.
2642 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2643 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2644 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2645 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2646 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2648 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2649 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2650 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2651 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2652 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2653 around this problem.
2657 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2658 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2659 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2662 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2663 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2665 * New native hosts supported
2667 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2668 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2670 * New targets supported
2672 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2674 * New file formats supported
2676 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2677 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2681 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2683 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2684 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2686 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2687 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2688 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2690 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2691 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2693 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2694 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2695 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2698 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2699 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2700 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2701 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2702 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2704 * Internal improvements
2706 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2707 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2709 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2710 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2711 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2712 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2713 shared code that handles any of them.
2715 * New command line options
2717 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2721 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2722 General Public License.
2724 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2726 * Host/native/target split
2728 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2729 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2730 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2731 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2732 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2734 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2735 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2736 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2737 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2738 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2739 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2740 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2742 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2743 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2744 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2746 * New hosts supported
2748 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2749 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2750 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2752 * New targets supported
2754 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2755 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2757 * New native hosts supported
2759 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2760 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2761 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2763 * New file formats supported
2765 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2766 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2767 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2771 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2772 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2773 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2775 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2777 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2778 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2779 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2780 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2784 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2785 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2786 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2788 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2792 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2793 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2796 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2797 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2799 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2800 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2801 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2802 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2803 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2804 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2806 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2807 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2808 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2809 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2813 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2814 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2815 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2816 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2817 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2819 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2820 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2821 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2822 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2826 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2827 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2828 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2829 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2830 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2831 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2832 each instruction being stepped through.
2834 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2835 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2837 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2838 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2839 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2840 processor with a serial port.
2844 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2845 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2846 supported, and what files each one uses.
2850 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2851 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2852 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2853 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2855 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2856 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2857 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2858 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2862 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2863 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2864 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2865 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2866 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2867 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2869 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2872 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2874 * Better support for C++ function names
2876 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2877 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2878 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2879 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2880 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2882 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2883 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2884 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2885 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2886 for the list of formats.
2888 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2890 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2891 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2892 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2893 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2894 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2895 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2898 * New 'maintenance' command
2900 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2901 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2902 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2904 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2905 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2906 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2907 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2908 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2909 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2911 The following commands are new:
2913 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2914 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2915 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2917 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2919 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2920 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2921 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2922 read after argv processing.
2924 * New hosts supported
2926 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2928 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2930 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2931 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2932 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2933 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2934 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2937 * New targets supported
2939 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2941 * More smarts about finding #include files
2943 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2944 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2945 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2946 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2947 the one that contains your sources.
2949 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2950 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2951 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2953 * Interesting infernals change
2955 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2956 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2957 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2958 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2960 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2962 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2963 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2964 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2966 See the ChangeLog for details.
2968 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2970 * New machines supported (host and target)
2972 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2974 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2976 * New malloc package
2978 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2979 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2980 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2981 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2982 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2983 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2987 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2988 'help info proc' for details.
2990 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2992 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2993 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2996 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2998 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2999 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3000 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3001 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3002 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3003 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3005 * Cross byte order fixes
3007 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3008 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3010 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3012 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3013 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3014 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3015 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3016 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3017 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3018 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3019 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3020 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3021 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3023 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3024 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3025 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3026 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3028 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3029 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3030 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3033 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3035 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3036 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3037 shared across multiple host platforms.
3039 * longjmp() handling
3041 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3042 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3043 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3044 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3048 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3049 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3054 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3055 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3056 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3058 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3060 * New machines supported (host and target)
3062 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3064 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3065 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3067 * New machines supported (target)
3069 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3073 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3074 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3075 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3077 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3078 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3079 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3080 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3081 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3084 * New features for SVR4
3086 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3087 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3088 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3090 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3091 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3092 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3094 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3095 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3097 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3099 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3100 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3101 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3102 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3103 same code linked statically.
3107 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3108 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3109 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3110 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3111 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3112 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3116 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3117 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3118 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3121 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3123 * New machines supported (host and target)
3125 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3126 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3127 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3129 * Almost SCO Unix support
3131 We had hoped to support:
3132 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3133 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3134 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3135 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3137 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3139 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3140 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3141 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3142 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3147 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3148 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3149 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3153 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3154 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3155 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3157 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3159 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3160 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3161 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3163 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3164 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3165 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3166 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3169 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3170 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3171 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3172 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3175 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3176 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3179 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3180 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3181 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3184 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3186 * Improved configuration
3188 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3189 Porting BFD is simpler.
3193 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3194 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3195 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3196 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3200 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3202 * New host supported (not target)
3204 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3207 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3209 * Multiple source language support
3211 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3212 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3213 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3214 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3215 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3216 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3220 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3221 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3222 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3223 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3225 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3226 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3227 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3229 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3230 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3234 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3235 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3236 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3237 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3240 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3242 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3243 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3244 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3245 examining core files.
3249 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3252 * New machines supported (host and target)
3254 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3255 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3256 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3258 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3260 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3262 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3264 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3265 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3266 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3268 * New remote interfaces
3274 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3278 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3280 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3281 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3282 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3283 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3284 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3285 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3286 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3287 stub on the target system.
3289 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3291 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3292 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3293 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3295 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3296 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3299 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3301 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3302 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3304 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3305 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3306 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3308 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3309 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3310 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3311 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3313 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3314 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3315 it is already running. Default is ON.
3317 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3318 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3319 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3320 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3323 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3324 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3325 or the value of the environment variable
3328 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3329 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3332 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3333 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3334 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3336 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3337 history expansion will be performed on
3338 command line input. The default is OFF.
3340 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3341 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3342 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3344 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3345 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3346 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3349 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3350 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3351 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3354 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3355 ``set width'' instead.
3357 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3358 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3359 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3360 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3362 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3365 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3368 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3371 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3374 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3376 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3377 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3378 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3382 * Support for Shared Libraries
3384 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3385 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3386 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3387 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3388 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3389 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3390 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3391 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3393 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3394 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3395 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3397 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3402 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3403 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3404 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3405 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3406 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3407 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3409 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3411 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3413 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3414 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3415 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3418 * C++ multiple inheritance
3420 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3423 * C++ exception handling
3425 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3426 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3427 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3430 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3431 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3432 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3434 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3435 current stack frame.
3438 * Minor command changes
3440 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3441 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3442 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3444 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3445 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3446 frames without printing.
3448 * New directory command
3450 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3451 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3452 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3453 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3454 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3456 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3458 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3461 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3462 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3463 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3464 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob