1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.0:
8 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
9 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
10 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
13 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
15 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
16 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
19 * New native configurations
21 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
23 * New debugging protocols
25 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
27 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
29 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
30 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
31 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
33 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
35 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
36 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
37 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
40 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
41 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
42 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
43 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
44 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
45 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
46 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
47 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
48 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
50 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
52 * REMOVED configurations and files
54 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
55 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
56 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
57 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
58 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
59 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
60 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
61 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
62 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
63 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
64 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
65 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
66 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
67 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
69 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
73 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
76 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
78 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
79 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
80 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
83 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
84 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
89 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
90 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
91 remote protocol documentation for details.
93 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
95 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
96 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
97 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
100 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
102 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
103 per-thread variables.
105 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
107 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
108 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
110 * Separate debug info.
112 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
113 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
114 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
115 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
116 and optional debug files.
118 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
120 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
121 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
124 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
125 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
129 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
130 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
131 considered "useable".
133 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
135 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
136 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
139 * GDB supports logging output to a file
141 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
142 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
144 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
146 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
147 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
150 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
152 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
153 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
157 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
158 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
159 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
160 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
161 data, for more informative profiling results.
163 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
165 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
166 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
167 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
169 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
172 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
173 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
174 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
175 in a subsequent -var-update.
177 * New native configurations.
179 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
181 * Multi-arched targets.
183 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
184 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
186 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
188 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
189 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
190 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
193 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
194 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
195 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
196 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
197 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
198 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
199 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
200 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
201 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
202 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
203 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
204 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
206 * REMOVED configurations and files
209 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
210 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
211 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
212 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
213 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
214 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
216 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
217 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
218 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
219 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
220 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
221 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
223 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
225 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
226 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
227 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
228 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
229 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
231 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
233 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
235 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
236 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
237 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
238 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
239 shared libs like mad''.
241 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
243 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
244 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
245 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
246 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
248 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
250 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
251 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
254 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
255 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
257 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
258 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
260 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
261 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
262 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
263 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
265 * Multi-arched targets.
267 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
268 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
270 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
271 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
272 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
276 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
279 * New native configurations
281 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
282 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
283 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
284 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
286 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
288 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
289 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
290 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
293 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
294 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
295 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
296 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
297 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
298 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
299 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
300 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
301 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
302 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
304 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
305 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
309 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
311 * REMOVED configurations and files
313 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
314 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
315 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
316 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
317 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
319 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
321 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
323 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
324 commands. The default is 1024.
326 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
328 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
330 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
332 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
333 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
334 from a file into memory (restore).
336 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
338 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
339 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
340 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
342 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
350 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
351 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
352 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
354 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
355 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
356 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
358 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
359 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
360 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
362 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
363 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
364 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
366 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
368 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
370 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
371 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
372 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
373 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
374 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
375 (notably embedded) targets.
377 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
379 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
380 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
381 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
382 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
384 * New command line option
386 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
388 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
390 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
391 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
392 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
393 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
394 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
395 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
396 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
397 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
398 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
399 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
401 * Changes in ARM configurations.
403 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
404 configuration is fully multi-arch.
406 * New native configurations
408 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
409 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
410 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
411 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
415 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
417 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
419 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
420 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
421 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
424 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
425 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
426 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
427 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
428 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
430 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
432 * REMOVED configurations and files
434 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
436 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
437 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
438 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
439 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
440 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
441 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
442 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
443 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
444 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
445 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
446 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
448 * Changes to command line processing
450 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
451 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
453 * Changes to key bindings
455 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
457 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
459 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
461 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
464 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
466 Numerous documentation fixes.
468 Numerous testsuite fixes.
470 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
472 * New native configurations
474 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
475 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
476 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
477 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
479 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
483 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
485 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
487 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
489 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
490 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
491 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
492 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
493 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
495 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
496 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
497 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
498 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
499 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
500 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
501 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
502 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
504 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
505 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
507 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
508 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
509 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
512 * REMOVED configurations and files
514 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
515 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
517 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
521 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
523 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
524 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
529 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
531 * The MI enabled by default.
533 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
534 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
535 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
536 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
537 which is now deprecated.
539 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
541 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
542 main features are supported:
544 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
546 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
549 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
551 - a Pascal expression parser.
553 However, some important features are not yet supported.
555 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
557 - there are some problems with boolean types;
559 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
560 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
562 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
564 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
566 * Changes in completion.
568 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
569 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
570 users expect at the shell prompt.
572 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
573 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
574 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
575 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
576 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
577 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
578 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
580 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
582 * New platform-independent commands:
584 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
585 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
586 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
588 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
590 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
591 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
592 many threads as your system allows you to have.
594 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
596 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
597 multi-threaded programs though.
599 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
601 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
603 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
604 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
607 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
609 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
610 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
611 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
612 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
613 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
616 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
617 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
618 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
620 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
622 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
623 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
625 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
626 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
629 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
630 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
631 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
632 a given linear address.
634 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
635 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
636 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
638 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
640 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
642 * Changes in documentation.
644 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
645 Documentation License.
647 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
650 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
652 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
655 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
656 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
657 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
659 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
661 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
662 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
663 contents of this file.
667 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
669 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
671 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
673 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
674 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
675 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
676 greater level of detail.
678 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
680 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
681 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
682 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
685 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
687 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
688 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
689 machines ``out of the box''.
691 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
692 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
693 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
694 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
695 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
697 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
698 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
699 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
700 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
701 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
703 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
704 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
707 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
710 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
711 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
712 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
713 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
715 * New native configurations
717 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
718 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
722 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
723 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
724 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
725 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
727 * OBSOLETE configurations
729 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
730 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
732 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
735 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
736 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
737 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
738 be permanently REMOVED.
740 * Gould support removed
742 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
744 * New features for SVR4
746 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
747 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
748 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
750 * Many C++ enhancements
752 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
753 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
755 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
757 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
758 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
759 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
760 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
762 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
763 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
765 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
767 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
768 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
769 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
771 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
772 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
774 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
776 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
777 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
778 include ``set remote P-packet''.
780 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
782 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
783 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
784 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
786 * ``apropos'' command added.
788 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
789 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
790 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
794 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
795 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
796 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
797 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
798 enabled by configuring with:
800 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
802 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
804 * New native configurations
806 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
807 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
808 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
812 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
813 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
814 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
816 * OBSOLETE configurations
818 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
820 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
821 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
822 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
823 be permanently REMOVED.
827 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
828 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
829 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
830 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
831 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
832 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
833 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
838 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
840 * set extension-language
842 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
843 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
844 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
845 set extension-language .c c++
846 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
847 and their associated languages.
849 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
851 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
852 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
853 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
857 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
858 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
860 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
861 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
863 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
864 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
865 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
866 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
867 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
868 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
869 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
870 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
872 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
873 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
874 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
875 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
879 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
880 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
881 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
882 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
883 for xdb and dbx commands.
887 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
888 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
889 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
891 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
892 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
893 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
895 * Debugging across forks
897 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
902 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
903 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
904 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
906 * GDB remote protocol additions
908 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
909 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
910 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
911 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
913 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
914 full 64-bit address. The command
916 set remoteaddresssize 32
918 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
919 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
922 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
923 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
925 maint packet heythere
927 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
928 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
931 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
932 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
933 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
935 * Tracing can collect general expressions
937 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
938 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
939 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
941 * mask-address variable for Mips
943 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
944 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
945 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
947 * Higher serial baud rates
949 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
950 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
951 to achieve all of these rates.)
955 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
956 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
959 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
961 * New native configurations
963 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
964 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
965 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
966 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
967 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
968 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
969 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
973 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
974 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
975 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
976 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
977 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
978 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
979 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
980 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
981 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
982 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
983 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
985 * New debugging protocols
987 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
988 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
989 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
990 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
991 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
992 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
996 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
997 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1002 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1003 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1005 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1007 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1008 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1009 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1011 * Live range splitting
1013 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1014 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1015 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1019 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1020 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1024 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1025 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1026 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1031 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1036 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1037 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1038 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1039 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1040 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1041 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1045 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1046 the symbol at the specified address.
1050 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1051 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1052 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1053 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1054 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1058 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1059 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1060 of most MIPS variants.
1064 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1065 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1066 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1070 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1071 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1072 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1073 the possible architectures.
1075 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1077 * New native configurations
1079 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1080 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1081 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1082 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1083 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1084 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1088 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1089 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1090 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1091 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1092 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1094 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1098 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1099 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1100 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1101 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1102 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1106 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1108 * Windows 95/NT native
1110 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1111 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1112 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1113 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1114 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1116 * dont-repeat command
1118 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1119 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1120 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1121 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1123 * Send break instead of ^C
1125 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1126 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1127 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1129 * Remote protocol timeout
1131 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1132 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1133 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1135 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1137 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1138 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1139 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1140 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1141 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1143 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1144 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1145 automatically on hpux10.
1147 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1149 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1151 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1153 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1154 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1155 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1156 every character. The default value is 1050.
1158 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1160 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1161 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1162 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1163 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1164 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1165 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1167 * Speedups for remote debugging
1169 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1170 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1171 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1173 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1175 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1176 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1178 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1180 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1182 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1183 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1185 * Remote targets use caching
1187 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1188 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1189 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1190 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1191 off' turns the the data cache off.
1193 * Remote targets may have threads
1195 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1196 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1197 gdb/remote.c for details.
1201 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1202 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1203 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1204 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1205 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1206 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1207 sequence is something like
1209 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1211 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1215 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1216 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1217 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1218 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1219 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1220 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1221 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1222 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1226 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1227 but does simplify configuration and building.
1231 GDB now supports hpux10.
1233 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1235 * New native configurations
1237 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1238 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1239 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1240 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1244 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1245 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1246 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1247 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1250 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1252 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1253 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1254 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1255 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1256 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1258 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1260 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1261 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1264 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1266 To execute the command use:
1269 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1270 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1271 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1273 * New `if' and `while' commands
1275 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1276 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1277 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1278 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1279 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1280 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1281 if the expression is zero.
1283 * Fortran source language mode
1285 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1286 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1287 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1288 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1291 * Better HPUX support
1293 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1294 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1295 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1296 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1297 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1303 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1304 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1310 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1311 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1314 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1315 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1317 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1319 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1320 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1321 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1322 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1323 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1324 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1326 * New DOS host serial code
1328 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1329 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1332 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1334 * New "complete" command
1336 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1337 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1339 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1341 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1342 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1344 * Breakpoint hit counts
1346 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1347 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1348 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1349 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1350 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1353 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1355 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1356 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1357 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1359 * Shared library breakpoints
1361 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1362 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1364 * Hardware watchpoints
1366 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1367 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1369 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1373 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1374 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1376 * Improved Irix 5 support
1378 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1380 * Improved HPPA support
1382 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1384 * New native configurations
1386 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1387 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1388 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1389 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1393 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1394 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1397 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1399 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1400 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1404 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1405 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1407 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1409 * Irix 5 is now supported
1413 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1414 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1415 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1416 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1417 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1420 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1422 * User visible changes:
1426 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1427 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1428 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1429 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1430 debugging info for the mips target).
1432 * DEC Alpha native support
1434 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1435 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1436 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1437 Alpha-specific notes.
1439 * Preliminary thread implementation
1441 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1443 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1445 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1446 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1449 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1451 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1452 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1453 call methods, ...etc.
1455 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1457 * User visible changes:
1459 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1460 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1461 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1462 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1464 Filename completion now works.
1466 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1467 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1468 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1470 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1471 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1472 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1473 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1474 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1478 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1479 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1482 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1486 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1487 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1488 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1492 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1493 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1494 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1495 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1496 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1500 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1501 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1502 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1504 * New targets supported
1506 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1507 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1508 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1509 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1510 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1512 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1513 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1514 GO32 memory extender.
1516 * New remote protocols
1518 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1520 * New source languages supported
1522 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1523 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1524 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1527 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1529 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1531 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1532 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1533 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1534 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1535 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1536 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1538 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1540 * Faster and better demangling
1542 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1543 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1544 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1545 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1546 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1547 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1550 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1551 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1552 compiler does not actually implement.
1554 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1556 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1557 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1558 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1559 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1560 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1561 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1564 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1565 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1567 * Improved configure script
1569 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1570 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1571 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1572 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1574 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1575 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1576 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1577 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1578 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1579 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1581 * Documentation improvements
1583 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1584 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1585 before submitting changes.
1587 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1588 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1589 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1590 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1591 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1593 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1594 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1595 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1596 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1597 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1598 around this problem.
1602 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1603 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1604 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1607 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1608 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1610 * New native hosts supported
1612 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1613 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1615 * New targets supported
1617 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1619 * New file formats supported
1621 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1622 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1626 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1628 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1629 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1631 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1632 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1633 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1635 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1636 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1638 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1639 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1640 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1643 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1644 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1645 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1646 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1647 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1649 * Internal improvements
1651 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1652 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1654 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1655 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1656 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1657 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1658 shared code that handles any of them.
1660 * New command line options
1662 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1666 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1667 General Public License.
1669 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1671 * Host/native/target split
1673 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1674 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1675 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1676 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1677 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1679 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1680 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1681 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1682 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1683 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1684 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1685 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1687 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1688 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1689 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1691 * New hosts supported
1693 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1694 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1695 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1697 * New targets supported
1699 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1700 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1702 * New native hosts supported
1704 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1705 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1706 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1708 * New file formats supported
1710 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1711 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1712 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1716 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1717 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1718 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1720 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1722 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1723 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1724 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1725 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1729 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1730 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1731 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1733 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1737 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1738 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1741 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1742 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1744 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1745 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1746 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1747 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1748 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1749 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1751 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1752 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1753 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1754 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1758 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1759 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1760 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1761 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1762 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1764 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1765 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1766 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1767 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1771 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1772 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1773 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1774 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1775 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1776 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1777 each instruction being stepped through.
1779 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1780 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1782 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1783 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1784 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1785 processor with a serial port.
1789 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1790 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1791 supported, and what files each one uses.
1795 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1796 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1797 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1798 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1800 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1801 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1802 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1803 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1807 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1808 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1809 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1810 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1811 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1812 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1814 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1817 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1819 * Better support for C++ function names
1821 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1822 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1823 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1824 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1825 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1827 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1828 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1829 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1830 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1831 for the list of formats.
1833 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1835 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1836 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1837 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1838 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1839 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1840 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1843 * New 'maintenance' command
1845 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1846 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1847 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1849 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1850 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1851 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1852 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1853 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1854 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1856 The following commands are new:
1858 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1859 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1860 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1862 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1864 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1865 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1866 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1867 read after argv processing.
1869 * New hosts supported
1871 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1873 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1875 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1876 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1877 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1878 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1879 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1882 * New targets supported
1884 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1886 * More smarts about finding #include files
1888 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1889 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1890 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1891 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1892 the one that contains your sources.
1894 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1895 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1896 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1898 * Interesting infernals change
1900 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1901 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1902 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1903 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1905 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1907 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1908 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1909 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1911 See the ChangeLog for details.
1913 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1915 * New machines supported (host and target)
1917 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1919 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1921 * New malloc package
1923 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1924 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1925 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1926 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1927 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1928 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1932 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1933 'help info proc' for details.
1935 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1937 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1938 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1941 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1943 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1944 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1945 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1946 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1947 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1948 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1950 * Cross byte order fixes
1952 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1953 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1955 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1957 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1958 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1959 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1960 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1961 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1962 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1963 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1964 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1965 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1966 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1968 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1969 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1970 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1971 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1973 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1974 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1975 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1978 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1980 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1981 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1982 shared across multiple host platforms.
1984 * longjmp() handling
1986 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1987 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1988 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1989 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1993 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1994 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1999 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2000 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2001 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2003 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2005 * New machines supported (host and target)
2007 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2009 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2010 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2012 * New machines supported (target)
2014 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2018 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2019 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2020 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2022 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2023 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2024 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2025 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2026 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2029 * New features for SVR4
2031 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2032 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2033 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2035 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2036 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2037 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2039 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2040 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2042 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2044 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2045 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2046 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2047 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2048 same code linked statically.
2052 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2053 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2054 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2055 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2056 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2057 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2061 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2062 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2063 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2066 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2068 * New machines supported (host and target)
2070 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2071 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2072 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2074 * Almost SCO Unix support
2076 We had hoped to support:
2077 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2078 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2079 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2080 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2082 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2084 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2085 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2086 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2087 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2092 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2093 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2094 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2098 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2099 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2100 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2102 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2104 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2105 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2106 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2108 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2109 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2110 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2111 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2114 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2115 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2116 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2117 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2120 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2121 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2124 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2125 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2126 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2129 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2131 * Improved configuration
2133 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2134 Porting BFD is simpler.
2138 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2139 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2140 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2141 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2145 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2147 * New host supported (not target)
2149 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2152 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2154 * Multiple source language support
2156 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2157 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2158 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2159 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2160 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2161 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2165 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2166 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2167 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2168 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2170 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2171 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2172 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2174 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2175 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2179 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2180 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2181 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2182 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2185 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2187 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2188 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2189 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2190 examining core files.
2194 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2197 * New machines supported (host and target)
2199 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2200 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2201 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2203 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2205 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2207 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2209 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2210 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2211 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2213 * New remote interfaces
2219 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2223 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2225 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2226 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2227 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2228 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2229 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2230 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2231 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2232 stub on the target system.
2234 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2236 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2237 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2238 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2240 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2241 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2244 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2246 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2247 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2249 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2250 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2251 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2253 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2254 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2255 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2256 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2258 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2259 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2260 it is already running. Default is ON.
2262 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2263 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2264 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2265 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2268 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2269 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2270 or the value of the environment variable
2273 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2274 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2277 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2278 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2279 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2281 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2282 history expansion will be performed on
2283 command line input. The default is OFF.
2285 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2286 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2287 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2289 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2290 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2291 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2294 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2295 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2296 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2299 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2300 ``set width'' instead.
2302 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2303 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2304 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2305 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2307 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2310 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2313 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2316 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2319 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2321 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2322 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2323 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2327 * Support for Shared Libraries
2329 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2330 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2331 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2332 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2333 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2334 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2335 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2336 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2338 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2339 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2340 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2342 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2347 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2348 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2349 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2350 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2351 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2352 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2354 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2356 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2358 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2359 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2360 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2363 * C++ multiple inheritance
2365 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2368 * C++ exception handling
2370 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2371 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2372 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2375 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2376 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2377 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2379 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2380 current stack frame.
2383 * Minor command changes
2385 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2386 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2387 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2389 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2390 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2391 frames without printing.
2393 * New directory command
2395 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2396 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2397 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2398 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2399 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2401 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2403 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2406 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2407 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2408 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2409 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob