1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.2:
6 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multithreaded applications on some targets
8 Support for multithreaded applications using LinuxThreads has been added
9 for arm*-*-linux*, i[3456]86-*-linux*, mips*-*-linux*, powerpc*-*-linux*,
12 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
14 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
15 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
18 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
19 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
20 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
21 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
23 Here are the new commands for working with macros:
25 ** macro expand EXPRESSION
27 Expand any macro invocations in expression, and show the result.
29 ** show macro MACRO-NAME
31 Show the definition of the macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was
34 * Multi-arched targets.
36 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
37 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
39 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
45 * New native configurations
47 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
48 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
49 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
50 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
52 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
54 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
55 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
56 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
59 * REMOVED configurations and files
61 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
62 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
63 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
64 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
65 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
67 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
69 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
71 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
72 commands. The default is 1024.
74 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
76 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
78 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
80 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
81 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
82 from a file into memory (restore).
84 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
86 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
88 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
89 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
90 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
91 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
92 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
93 (notably embedded) targets.
95 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
97 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
98 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
99 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
100 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
102 * New command line option
104 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
106 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
108 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
109 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
110 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
111 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
112 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
113 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
114 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
115 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
116 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
117 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
119 * Changes in ARM configurations.
121 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
122 configuration is fully multi-arch.
124 * New native configurations
126 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
127 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
128 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
129 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
133 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
135 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
137 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
138 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
139 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
142 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
143 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
144 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
145 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
146 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
148 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
150 * REMOVED configurations and files
152 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
154 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
155 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
156 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
157 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
158 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
159 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
160 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
161 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
162 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
163 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
164 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
166 * Changes to command line processing
168 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
169 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
171 * Changes to key bindings
173 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
175 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
177 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
179 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
182 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
184 Numerous documentation fixes.
186 Numerous testsuite fixes.
188 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
190 * New native configurations
192 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
193 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
194 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
195 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
197 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
201 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
203 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
205 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
207 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
208 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
209 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
210 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
211 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
213 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
214 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
215 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
216 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
217 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
218 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
219 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
220 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
222 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
223 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
225 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
226 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
227 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
230 * REMOVED configurations and files
232 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
233 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
235 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
239 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
241 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
242 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
247 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
249 * The MI enabled by default.
251 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
252 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
253 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
254 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
255 which is now deprecated.
257 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
259 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
260 main features are supported:
262 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
264 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
267 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
269 - a Pascal expression parser.
271 However, some important features are not yet supported.
273 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
275 - there are some problems with boolean types;
277 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
278 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
280 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
282 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
284 * Changes in completion.
286 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
287 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
288 users expect at the shell prompt.
290 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
291 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
292 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
293 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
294 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
295 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
296 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
298 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
300 * New platform-independent commands:
302 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
303 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
304 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
306 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
308 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
309 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
310 many threads as your system allows you to have.
312 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
314 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
315 multi-threaded programs though.
317 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
319 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
321 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
322 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
325 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
327 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
328 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
329 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
330 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
331 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
334 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
335 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
336 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
338 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
340 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
341 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
343 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
344 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
347 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
348 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
349 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
350 a given linear address.
352 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
353 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
354 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
356 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
358 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
360 * Changes in documentation.
362 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
363 Documentation License.
365 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
368 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
370 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
373 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
374 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
375 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
377 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
379 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
380 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
381 contents of this file.
385 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
387 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
389 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
391 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
392 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
393 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
394 greater level of detail.
396 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
398 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
399 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
400 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
403 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
405 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
406 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
407 machines ``out of the box''.
409 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
410 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
411 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
412 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
413 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
415 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
416 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
417 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
418 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
419 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
421 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
422 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
425 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
428 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
429 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
430 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
431 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
433 * New native configurations
435 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
436 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
440 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
441 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
442 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
443 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
445 * OBSOLETE configurations
447 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
448 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
450 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
453 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
454 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
455 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
456 be permanently REMOVED.
458 * Gould support removed
460 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
462 * New features for SVR4
464 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
465 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
466 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
468 * Many C++ enhancements
470 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
471 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
473 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
475 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
476 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
477 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
478 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
480 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
481 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
483 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
485 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
486 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
487 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
489 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
490 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
492 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
494 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
495 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
496 include ``set remote P-packet''.
498 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
500 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
501 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
502 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
504 * ``apropos'' command added.
506 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
507 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
508 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
512 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
513 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
514 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
515 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
516 enabled by configuring with:
518 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
520 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
522 * New native configurations
524 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
525 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
526 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
530 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
531 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
532 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
534 * OBSOLETE configurations
536 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
538 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
539 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
540 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
541 be permanently REMOVED.
545 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
546 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
547 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
548 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
549 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
550 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
551 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
556 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
558 * set extension-language
560 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
561 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
562 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
563 set extension-language .c c++
564 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
565 and their associated languages.
567 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
569 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
570 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
571 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
575 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
576 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
578 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
579 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
581 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
582 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
583 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
584 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
585 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
586 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
587 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
588 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
590 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
591 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
592 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
593 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
597 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
598 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
599 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
600 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
601 for xdb and dbx commands.
605 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
606 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
607 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
609 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
610 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
611 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
613 * Debugging across forks
615 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
620 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
621 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
622 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
624 * GDB remote protocol additions
626 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
627 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
628 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
629 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
631 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
632 full 64-bit address. The command
634 set remoteaddresssize 32
636 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
637 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
640 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
641 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
643 maint packet heythere
645 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
646 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
649 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
650 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
651 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
653 * Tracing can collect general expressions
655 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
656 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
657 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
659 * mask-address variable for Mips
661 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
662 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
663 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
665 * Higher serial baud rates
667 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
668 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
669 to achieve all of these rates.)
673 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
674 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
677 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
679 * New native configurations
681 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
682 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
683 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
684 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
685 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
686 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
687 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
691 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
692 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
693 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
694 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
695 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
696 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
697 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
698 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
699 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
700 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
701 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
703 * New debugging protocols
705 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
706 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
707 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
708 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
709 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
710 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
714 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
715 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
720 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
721 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
723 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
725 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
726 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
727 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
729 * Live range splitting
731 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
732 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
733 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
737 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
738 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
742 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
743 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
744 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
749 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
754 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
755 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
756 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
757 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
758 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
759 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
763 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
764 the symbol at the specified address.
768 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
769 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
770 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
771 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
772 file tracepoint.c for more details.
776 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
777 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
778 of most MIPS variants.
782 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
783 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
784 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
788 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
789 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
790 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
791 the possible architectures.
793 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
795 * New native configurations
797 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
798 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
799 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
800 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
801 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
802 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
806 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
807 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
808 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
809 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
810 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
812 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
816 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
817 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
818 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
819 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
820 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
824 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
826 * Windows 95/NT native
828 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
829 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
830 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
831 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
832 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
834 * dont-repeat command
836 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
837 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
838 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
839 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
841 * Send break instead of ^C
843 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
844 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
845 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
847 * Remote protocol timeout
849 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
850 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
851 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
853 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
855 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
856 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
857 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
858 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
859 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
861 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
862 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
863 automatically on hpux10.
865 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
867 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
869 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
871 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
872 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
873 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
874 every character. The default value is 1050.
876 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
878 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
879 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
880 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
881 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
882 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
883 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
885 * Speedups for remote debugging
887 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
888 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
889 and more efficient S-record downloading.
891 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
893 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
894 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
896 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
900 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
901 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
903 * Remote targets use caching
905 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
906 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
907 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
908 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
909 off' turns the the data cache off.
911 * Remote targets may have threads
913 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
914 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
915 gdb/remote.c for details.
919 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
920 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
921 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
922 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
923 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
924 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
925 sequence is something like
927 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
929 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
933 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
934 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
935 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
936 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
937 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
938 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
939 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
940 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
944 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
945 but does simplify configuration and building.
949 GDB now supports hpux10.
951 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
953 * New native configurations
955 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
956 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
957 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
958 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
962 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
963 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
964 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
965 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
968 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
970 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
971 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
972 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
973 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
974 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
976 * Arguments to user-defined commands
978 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
979 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
982 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
984 To execute the command use:
987 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
988 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
989 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
991 * New `if' and `while' commands
993 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
994 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
995 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
996 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
997 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
998 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
999 if the expression is zero.
1001 * Fortran source language mode
1003 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1004 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1005 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1006 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1009 * Better HPUX support
1011 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1012 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1013 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1014 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1015 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1021 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1022 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1028 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1029 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1032 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1033 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1035 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1037 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1038 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1039 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1040 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1041 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1042 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1044 * New DOS host serial code
1046 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1047 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1050 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1052 * New "complete" command
1054 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1055 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1057 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1059 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1060 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1062 * Breakpoint hit counts
1064 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1065 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1066 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1067 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1068 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1071 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1073 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1074 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1075 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1077 * Shared library breakpoints
1079 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1080 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1082 * Hardware watchpoints
1084 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1085 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1087 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1091 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1092 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1094 * Improved Irix 5 support
1096 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1098 * Improved HPPA support
1100 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1102 * New native configurations
1104 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1105 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1106 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1107 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1111 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1112 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1115 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1117 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1118 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1122 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1123 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1125 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1127 * Irix 5 is now supported
1131 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1132 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1133 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1134 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1135 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1138 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1140 * User visible changes:
1144 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1145 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1146 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1147 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1148 debugging info for the mips target).
1150 * DEC Alpha native support
1152 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1153 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1154 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1155 Alpha-specific notes.
1157 * Preliminary thread implementation
1159 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1161 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1163 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1164 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1167 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1169 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1170 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1171 call methods, ...etc.
1173 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1175 * User visible changes:
1177 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1178 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1179 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1180 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1182 Filename completion now works.
1184 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1185 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1186 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1188 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1189 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1190 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1191 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1192 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1196 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1197 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1200 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1204 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1205 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1206 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1210 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1211 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1212 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1213 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1214 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1218 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1219 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1220 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1222 * New targets supported
1224 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1225 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1226 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1227 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1228 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1230 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1231 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1232 GO32 memory extender.
1234 * New remote protocols
1236 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1238 * New source languages supported
1240 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1241 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1242 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1245 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1247 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1249 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1250 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1251 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1252 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1253 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1254 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1256 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1258 * Faster and better demangling
1260 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1261 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1262 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1263 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1264 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1265 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1268 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1269 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1270 compiler does not actually implement.
1272 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1274 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1275 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1276 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1277 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1278 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1279 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1282 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1283 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1285 * Improved configure script
1287 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1288 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1289 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1290 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1292 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1293 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1294 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1295 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1296 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1297 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1299 * Documentation improvements
1301 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1302 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1303 before submitting changes.
1305 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1306 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1307 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1308 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1309 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1311 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1312 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1313 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1314 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1315 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1316 around this problem.
1320 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1321 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1322 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1325 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1326 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1328 * New native hosts supported
1330 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1331 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1333 * New targets supported
1335 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1337 * New file formats supported
1339 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1340 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1344 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1346 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1347 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1349 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1350 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1351 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1353 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1354 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1356 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1357 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1358 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1361 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1362 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1363 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1364 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1365 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1367 * Internal improvements
1369 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1370 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1372 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1373 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1374 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1375 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1376 shared code that handles any of them.
1378 * New command line options
1380 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1384 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1385 General Public License.
1387 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1389 * Host/native/target split
1391 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1392 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1393 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1394 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1395 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1397 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1398 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1399 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1400 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1401 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1402 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1403 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1405 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1406 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1407 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1409 * New hosts supported
1411 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1412 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1413 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1415 * New targets supported
1417 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1418 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1420 * New native hosts supported
1422 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1423 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1424 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1426 * New file formats supported
1428 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1429 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1430 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1434 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1435 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1436 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1438 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1440 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1441 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1442 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1443 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1447 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1448 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1449 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1451 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1455 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1456 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1459 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1460 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1462 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1463 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1464 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1465 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1466 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1467 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1469 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1470 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1471 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1472 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1476 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1477 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1478 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1479 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1480 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1482 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1483 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1484 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1485 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1489 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1490 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1491 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1492 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1493 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1494 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1495 each instruction being stepped through.
1497 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1498 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1500 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1501 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1502 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1503 processor with a serial port.
1507 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1508 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1509 supported, and what files each one uses.
1513 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1514 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1515 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1516 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1518 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1519 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1520 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1521 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1525 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1526 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1527 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1528 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1529 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1530 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1532 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1535 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1537 * Better support for C++ function names
1539 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1540 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1541 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1542 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1543 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1545 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1546 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1547 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1548 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1549 for the list of formats.
1551 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1553 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1554 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1555 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1556 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1557 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1558 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1561 * New 'maintenance' command
1563 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1564 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1565 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1567 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1568 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1569 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1570 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1571 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1572 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1574 The following commands are new:
1576 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1577 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1578 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1580 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1582 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1583 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1584 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1585 read after argv processing.
1587 * New hosts supported
1589 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1591 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1593 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1594 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1595 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1596 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1597 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1600 * New targets supported
1602 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1604 * More smarts about finding #include files
1606 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1607 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1608 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1609 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1610 the one that contains your sources.
1612 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1613 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1614 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1616 * Interesting infernals change
1618 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1619 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1620 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1621 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1623 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1625 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1626 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1627 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1629 See the ChangeLog for details.
1631 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1633 * New machines supported (host and target)
1635 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1637 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1639 * New malloc package
1641 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1642 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1643 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1644 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1645 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1646 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1650 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1651 'help info proc' for details.
1653 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1655 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1656 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1659 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1661 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1662 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1663 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1664 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1665 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1666 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1668 * Cross byte order fixes
1670 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1671 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1673 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1675 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1676 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1677 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1678 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1679 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1680 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1681 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1682 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1683 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1684 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1686 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1687 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1688 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1689 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1691 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1692 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1693 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1696 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1698 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1699 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1700 shared across multiple host platforms.
1702 * longjmp() handling
1704 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1705 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1706 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1707 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1711 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1712 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1717 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1718 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1719 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1721 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1723 * New machines supported (host and target)
1725 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1727 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1728 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1730 * New machines supported (target)
1732 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1736 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1737 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1738 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1740 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1741 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1742 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1743 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1744 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1747 * New features for SVR4
1749 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1750 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1751 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1753 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1754 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1755 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1757 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1758 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1760 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1762 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1763 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1764 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1765 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1766 same code linked statically.
1770 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1771 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1772 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1773 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1774 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1775 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1779 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1780 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1781 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1784 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1786 * New machines supported (host and target)
1788 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1789 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1790 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1792 * Almost SCO Unix support
1794 We had hoped to support:
1795 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1796 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1797 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1798 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1800 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1802 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1803 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1804 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1805 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1810 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1811 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1812 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1816 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1817 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1818 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1820 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1822 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1823 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1824 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1826 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1827 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1828 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1829 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1832 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1833 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1834 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1835 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1838 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1839 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1842 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1843 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1844 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1847 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1849 * Improved configuration
1851 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1852 Porting BFD is simpler.
1856 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1857 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1858 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1859 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1863 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1865 * New host supported (not target)
1867 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1870 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1872 * Multiple source language support
1874 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1875 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1876 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1877 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1878 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1879 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1883 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1884 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1885 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1886 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1888 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1889 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1890 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1892 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1893 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1897 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1898 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1899 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1900 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1903 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1905 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1906 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1907 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1908 examining core files.
1912 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1915 * New machines supported (host and target)
1917 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1918 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1919 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1921 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1923 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1925 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1927 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1928 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1929 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1931 * New remote interfaces
1937 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1941 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1943 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1944 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1945 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1946 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1947 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1948 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1949 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1950 stub on the target system.
1952 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1954 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1955 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1956 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1958 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1959 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1962 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1964 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1965 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1967 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1968 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1969 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1971 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1972 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1973 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1974 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1976 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1977 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1978 it is already running. Default is ON.
1980 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1981 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1982 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1983 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1986 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1987 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1988 or the value of the environment variable
1991 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1992 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1995 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1996 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1997 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1999 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2000 history expansion will be performed on
2001 command line input. The default is OFF.
2003 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2004 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2005 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2007 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2008 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2009 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2012 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2013 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2014 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2017 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2018 ``set width'' instead.
2020 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2021 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2022 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2023 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2025 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2028 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2031 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2034 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2037 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2039 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2040 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2041 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2045 * Support for Shared Libraries
2047 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2048 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2049 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2050 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2051 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2052 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2053 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2054 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2056 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2057 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2058 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2060 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2065 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2066 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2067 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2068 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2069 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2070 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2072 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2074 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2076 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2077 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2078 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2081 * C++ multiple inheritance
2083 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2086 * C++ exception handling
2088 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2089 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2090 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2093 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2094 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2095 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2097 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2098 current stack frame.
2101 * Minor command changes
2103 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2104 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2105 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2107 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2108 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2109 frames without printing.
2111 * New directory command
2113 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2114 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2115 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2116 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2117 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2119 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2121 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2124 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2125 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2126 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2127 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob