1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.0
6 * On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
7 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
9 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
10 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
11 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
12 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
13 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
18 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
20 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
21 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
25 set debug separate-debug-file
26 show debug separate-debug-file
27 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
29 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
31 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
32 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
33 available in future Intel CPUs.
35 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
39 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
40 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
42 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
45 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
47 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
49 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
50 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
53 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
55 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
56 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
58 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
60 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
61 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
62 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
63 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
66 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
68 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
69 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
72 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
74 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
75 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
77 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
79 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
84 eval "print $arg%d", $i
89 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
91 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
92 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
94 * New native configurations
96 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
100 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
101 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
103 * Removed targets and native configurations
105 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
106 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
111 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
113 maint print arc arc-instruction address
114 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
118 set disassembler-options
119 show disassembler-options
120 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
121 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
122 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
123 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
124 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
129 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
130 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
132 -file-list-shared-libraries
133 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
134 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
136 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
138 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
140 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
141 default. One must now explicitly configure with
142 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
143 option will be removed in a future release.
145 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
148 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
149 memory backward from the given address. For example:
152 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
153 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
154 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
155 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
156 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
157 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
158 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
159 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
160 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
162 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
163 arrays of dynamic types.
165 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
166 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
167 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
168 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
169 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
170 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
172 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
175 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
176 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
177 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
179 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
181 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
182 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
183 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
184 signal received and code location.
188 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
189 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
190 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
191 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
193 * Rust language support.
194 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
195 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
198 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
200 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
201 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
202 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
203 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
204 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
205 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
206 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
207 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
208 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
209 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
212 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
214 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
215 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
220 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
221 skip -function function
222 skip -rfunction regular-expression
223 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
224 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
225 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
227 maint info line-table REGEXP
228 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
231 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
234 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
235 using the TTY file for input/output.
239 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
240 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
241 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
242 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
243 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
246 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
247 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
248 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
249 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
252 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
253 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
254 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
256 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
259 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
260 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
261 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
262 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
263 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
264 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
266 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
267 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
268 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
269 bytecode into native code.
271 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
272 recording. For example:
274 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
276 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
278 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
282 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
284 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
286 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
288 * Per-inferior thread numbers
290 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
291 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
292 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
296 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
297 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
298 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
299 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
301 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
302 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
303 are no longer unique between inferiors.
305 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
306 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
307 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
309 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
312 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
313 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
316 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
319 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
320 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
321 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
322 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
325 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
328 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
331 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
334 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
335 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
338 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
339 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
341 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
343 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
345 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
346 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
348 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
349 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
352 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
353 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
356 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
357 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
360 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
362 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
363 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
364 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
366 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
367 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
371 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
372 maint show target-non-stop
373 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
374 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
375 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
377 maint set bfd-sharing
378 maint show bfd-sharing
379 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
383 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
387 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
389 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
390 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
391 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
393 set remote thread-events
394 show remote thread-events
395 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
397 set ada print-signatures on|off
398 show ada print-signatures"
399 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
400 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
404 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
405 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
406 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
408 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
409 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
410 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
411 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
412 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
413 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
415 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
416 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
418 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
419 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
421 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
423 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
424 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
425 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
426 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
427 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
428 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
430 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
431 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
436 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
439 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
441 exec-events feature in qSupported
442 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
443 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
444 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
445 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
448 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
451 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
452 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
454 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
455 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
458 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
459 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
460 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
461 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
462 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
463 stop for that same thread.
466 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
467 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
468 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
471 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
472 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
474 syscall_entry stop reason
475 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
477 syscall_return stop reason
478 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
480 * Extended-remote exec events
482 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
483 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
484 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
486 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
487 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
488 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
490 * Thread names in remote protocol
492 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
495 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
497 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
498 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
499 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
500 fork and exec catchpoints.
502 * Remote syscall events
504 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
505 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
507 set remote catch-syscall-packet
508 show remote catch-syscall-packet
509 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
513 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
514 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
519 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
520 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
521 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
522 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
523 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
524 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
526 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
528 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
529 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
530 including advance SIMD instructions.
532 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
534 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
535 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
536 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
537 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
538 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
539 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
540 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
542 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
544 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
546 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
547 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
550 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
551 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
552 and may include things like its command line arguments.
554 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
555 is now available on all platforms.
557 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
558 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
559 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
560 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
561 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
562 backward compatibility.
564 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
565 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
566 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
567 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
569 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
570 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
571 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
572 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
575 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
577 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
579 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
580 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
581 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
582 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
583 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
584 See "New remote packets" below.
586 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
587 available register groups, including target specific groups.
589 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
590 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
591 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
592 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
597 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
601 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
602 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
603 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
604 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
605 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
606 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
607 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
608 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
609 "const" version of the value respectively.
613 maint print symbol-cache
614 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
616 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
617 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
619 maint flush-symbol-cache
620 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
624 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
627 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
631 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
634 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
635 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
639 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
642 Print information about branch tracing internals.
644 maint btrace packet-history
645 Print the raw branch tracing data.
647 maint btrace clear-packet-history
648 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
651 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
652 anew by the next "record" command.
657 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
659 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
662 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
663 show debug dwarf-read
664 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
666 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
667 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
668 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
669 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
671 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
672 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
673 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
674 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
677 show debug dwarf-line
678 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
682 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
683 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
684 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
685 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
687 set history remove-duplicates
688 show history remove-duplicates
689 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
691 maint set symbol-cache-size
692 maint show symbol-cache-size
693 Control the size of the symbol cache.
695 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
696 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
698 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
699 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
701 set debug linux-namespaces
702 show debug linux-namespaces
703 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
705 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
706 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
707 Intel Processor Trace format.
708 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
709 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
711 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
712 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
715 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
716 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
718 * Python/Guile scripting
720 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
721 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
725 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
726 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
728 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
729 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
732 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
733 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
737 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
741 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
742 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
743 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
747 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
748 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
751 Return information about files on the remote system.
754 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
755 create a process running on the remote system.
758 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
759 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
760 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
761 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
764 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
767 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
769 vforkdone stop reason
770 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
771 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
773 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
774 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
775 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
776 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
777 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
778 whether these features are enabled.
780 * Extended-remote fork events
782 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
783 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
784 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
785 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
787 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
788 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
789 the btrace record target.
790 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
792 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
793 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
795 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
798 * Removed command line options
800 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
802 * Removed targets and native configurations
804 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
805 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
807 * New configure options
810 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
811 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
813 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
814 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
815 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
816 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
818 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
822 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
824 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
826 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
830 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
831 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
832 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
833 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
834 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
835 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
836 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
837 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
838 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
839 selecting a new file to debug.
840 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
841 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
843 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
846 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
847 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
848 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
849 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
851 * New Python-based convenience functions:
853 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
854 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
855 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
856 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
858 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
859 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
860 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
861 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
862 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
863 interface with this new feature are:
865 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
866 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
870 demangle [-l language] [--] name
871 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
872 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
873 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
874 as "maint demangler-warning".
876 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
877 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
879 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
880 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
883 maint print user-registers
884 List all currently available "user" registers.
886 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
887 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
888 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
890 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
891 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
892 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
895 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
896 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
897 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
898 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
901 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
902 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
903 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
904 switched threads meanwhile.
906 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
908 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
909 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
910 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
911 is now the default mode.
915 set debug symbol-lookup
916 show debug symbol-lookup
917 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
921 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
922 inferiors that have exited.
926 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
930 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
932 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
933 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
934 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
935 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
936 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
938 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
939 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
940 its alias "share", instead.
942 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
944 * New command line options
947 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
949 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
950 as specified in ISO C99.
952 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
953 with or without disassembly.
957 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
958 available is determined at configure time.
959 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
960 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
962 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
966 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
970 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
972 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
973 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
975 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
976 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
980 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
981 show print symbol-loading
982 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
983 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
984 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
987 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
988 show guile print-stack
989 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
991 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
992 show auto-load guile-scripts
993 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
995 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
996 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
997 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
998 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
999 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1000 usage of this option.
1002 set auto-connect-native-target
1004 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1005 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1006 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1008 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1009 show record btrace replay-memory-access
1010 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1012 maint set target-async (on|off)
1013 maint show target-async
1014 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1015 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1016 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1017 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1019 set mi-async (on|off)
1021 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1022 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1024 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1025 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1027 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1028 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1029 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1030 "set target-async on" command.
1032 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1034 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1035 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1036 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1037 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1038 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1040 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1041 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1042 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1044 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1045 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1046 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1047 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1048 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1049 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1050 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1052 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1053 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1055 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1056 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1057 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1059 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1060 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1061 memory or registers.
1063 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1065 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1066 remote. It now works with all targets.
1068 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1069 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1070 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1071 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1072 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1073 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1074 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1075 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1076 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1079 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1080 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1081 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1083 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1085 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1086 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1087 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1089 * New remote packets
1091 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1092 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1093 branch trace incrementally.
1097 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1098 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1100 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1101 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1102 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1103 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1104 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
1107 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1109 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1110 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1111 its alias "share", instead.
1113 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1114 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1119 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1120 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1121 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1122 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1123 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1124 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1125 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1126 commands and CLI execution commands.
1128 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
1130 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1131 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1132 recording has been added.
1134 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1136 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1137 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1139 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1140 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1141 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1142 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1143 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1144 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1147 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1149 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1151 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1152 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1153 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1154 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1159 (gdb) info registers rax
1162 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1163 "*value not available*".
1165 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1170 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1171 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1172 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1173 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1174 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1175 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1179 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1180 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1181 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1183 * Removed native configurations
1185 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1186 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1188 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1189 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1190 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1191 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1192 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1193 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1194 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1198 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1199 maint check-psymtabs
1200 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1202 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1203 maint expand-symtabs
1204 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1207 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1209 maint set|show per-command
1210 maint set|show per-command space
1211 maint set|show per-command time
1212 maint set|show per-command symtab
1213 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1215 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1216 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1217 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1218 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1219 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1222 info exceptions REGEXP
1223 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1224 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1229 set debug symfile off|on
1231 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1232 symbol tables within those files
1234 set print raw frame-arguments
1235 show print raw frame-arguments
1236 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1237 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1239 set remote trace-status-packet
1240 show remote trace-status-packet
1241 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1245 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1249 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1251 set startup-with-shell
1252 show startup-with-shell
1253 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1258 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1259 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1261 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1262 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1263 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1264 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1267 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1268 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1269 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1271 * New command-line options
1273 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1275 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1276 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1278 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1281 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1283 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1284 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1286 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1287 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1289 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1290 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1291 due to an uncaught signal.
1295 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1296 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1297 command, which should contain "language-option".
1299 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1300 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1302 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1303 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1304 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1305 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1306 "undefined-command-error-code".
1308 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1311 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1313 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1314 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1317 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1318 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1320 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1321 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1322 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1324 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1325 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1326 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1327 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1328 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1329 "exec-run-start-option".
1331 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1332 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1334 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1335 the new "info exceptions" command.
1337 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1338 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1339 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1343 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1344 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1345 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1348 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1349 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1351 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1352 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1353 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1355 * New remote packets
1359 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1360 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1361 involvemement at each single-step.
1363 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1364 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1365 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1366 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1367 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1368 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1371 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1373 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1374 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1376 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1377 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1378 trace state variables.
1380 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1383 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1384 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1386 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1388 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1389 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1390 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1391 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1393 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1395 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1396 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1397 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1398 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1400 set|show record full insn-number-max
1401 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1402 set|show record full memory-query
1404 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1405 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1406 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1407 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1408 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1412 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1413 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1415 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1416 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1417 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1419 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1420 instruction granularity
1422 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1423 function granularity
1425 * New native configurations
1427 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1428 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1429 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1430 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1434 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1435 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1436 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1437 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1438 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1440 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1441 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1442 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1443 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1444 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1445 --data-directory command-line option.
1447 * New command line options:
1449 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1450 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1452 * Removed command line options
1454 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1457 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1460 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1464 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1466 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1468 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1470 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1472 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1473 of architecture in the Python API.
1475 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1476 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1478 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1480 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1481 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1483 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1485 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1488 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1489 default for GCC since November 2000.
1491 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1493 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1494 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1496 * New configure options
1498 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1499 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1500 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1501 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1502 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1503 options allow the user to override that default.
1504 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1505 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1506 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1508 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1511 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1512 conditions to be attached.
1515 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1517 python-interactive [command]
1519 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1520 and print the result of expressions.
1523 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1525 enable type-printer [name]...
1526 disable type-printer [name]...
1527 Enable or disable type printers.
1531 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1532 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1537 set print type methods (on|off)
1538 show print type methods
1539 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1540 The default is to show them.
1542 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1543 show print type typedefs
1544 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1545 The default is to show them.
1547 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1548 show filename-display
1549 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1550 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1552 set trace-buffer-size
1553 show trace-buffer-size
1554 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1556 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1557 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1558 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1562 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1565 set debug coff-pe-read
1566 show debug coff-pe-read
1567 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1572 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1575 set debug notification
1576 show debug notification
1577 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1581 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1582 "=cmd-param-changed".
1583 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1584 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1585 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1586 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1587 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1588 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1589 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1590 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1592 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1593 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1594 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1595 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1596 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1597 library load/unload events.
1598 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1599 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1600 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1601 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1602 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1603 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1604 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1605 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1607 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1608 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1609 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1610 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1612 * New remote packets
1615 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1616 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1619 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1620 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1624 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1625 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1628 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1629 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1631 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1633 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1634 for more x32 ABI info.
1636 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1638 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1640 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1641 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1642 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1643 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1644 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1645 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1646 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1647 "info os msg" lists message queues
1648 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1650 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1651 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1652 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1653 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1654 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1655 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1657 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1658 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1659 record/replay support.
1661 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1665 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
1668 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
1670 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
1671 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
1673 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
1675 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
1676 the source at which the symbol was defined.
1678 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
1679 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
1680 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
1683 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
1684 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
1686 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
1687 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
1688 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
1690 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
1691 object associated with a PC value.
1693 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
1694 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
1696 * Go language support.
1697 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
1700 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1701 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1703 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1704 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1706 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
1707 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
1708 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
1709 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
1710 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
1713 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
1714 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
1715 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
1716 build/libcpp/expr.c.
1718 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
1719 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
1721 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
1722 since December 2007.
1724 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
1725 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
1726 command does. For instance:
1728 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
1730 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
1731 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
1732 created, using the "condition" command.
1734 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
1735 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
1737 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
1739 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
1740 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
1741 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
1742 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
1743 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
1744 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
1745 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
1746 files with older .gdb_index sections.
1748 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
1749 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
1750 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
1751 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
1752 the .gdb_index section.
1754 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1756 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1761 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1763 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1767 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1768 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1769 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1771 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1772 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1774 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1777 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
1778 C++ and Java objects.
1780 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
1781 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
1782 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1783 configured with '--with-python'.
1785 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1786 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1787 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1788 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1789 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1790 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1791 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1793 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1794 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1795 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1796 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1798 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1799 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1800 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1801 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1803 ** "set print symbol"
1805 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1806 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1807 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1809 * Deprecated commands
1811 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1812 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1816 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1817 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
1819 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1820 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1821 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1822 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1827 set mips compression
1828 show mips compression
1829 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1830 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1833 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1835 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1836 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
1837 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
1838 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1840 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1844 Disable auto-loading globally.
1847 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1849 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1850 show auto-load gdb-scripts
1851 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1853 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1854 show auto-load python-scripts
1855 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1857 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1858 show auto-load local-gdbinit
1859 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1861 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1862 show auto-load libthread-db
1863 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1865 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1866 show auto-load scripts-directory
1867 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1868 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1869 of the directories listed by this option.
1870 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1872 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1873 show auto-load safe-path
1874 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1875 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1877 set debug auto-load on|off
1878 show debug auto-load
1879 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1881 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
1883 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1884 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1885 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1886 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
1888 set dprintf-function <expr>
1889 show dprintf-function
1890 set dprintf-channel <expr>
1891 show dprintf-channel
1892 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1893 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1895 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1896 show disconnected-dprintf
1897 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1898 after GDB disconnects.
1900 * New configure options
1902 --with-auto-load-dir
1903 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1904 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1905 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1906 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1907 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
1909 --with-auto-load-safe-path
1910 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
1911 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
1913 --without-auto-load-safe-path
1914 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1917 * New remote packets
1919 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1921 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1922 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1923 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1924 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1928 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1929 program without GDB involvement.
1931 * New command line options
1933 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1934 before loading inferior.
1935 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1936 execute it before loading inferior.
1938 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
1940 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1941 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1942 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1943 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1946 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1947 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1949 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1950 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1951 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1952 target hardware watchpoint.
1954 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1955 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1956 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1957 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1961 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
1962 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
1965 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
1966 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1967 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1968 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1969 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1972 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
1975 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1976 modules library. This module provides functionality for
1977 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
1978 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1979 corresponding value.
1981 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1982 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1983 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1986 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1987 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1988 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1989 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1991 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1993 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1996 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1997 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1998 available in the CLI.
2000 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2001 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2002 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2003 "some_type.items()".
2005 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2008 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2009 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2010 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2011 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2012 any anonymous fields.
2016 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2019 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2020 "=breakpoint-modified".
2022 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2024 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2025 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2026 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2029 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2030 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2031 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2032 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2033 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2035 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2036 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2038 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2039 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2040 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2041 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2042 use this option to specify where to find it.
2044 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2045 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2046 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2047 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2048 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2049 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2050 section in the user manual for more details.
2052 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2053 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2054 become available after that.
2056 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2058 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2059 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2065 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2066 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2070 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2071 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2072 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2074 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2075 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2076 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2078 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2079 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2080 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2081 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2082 name starts with a hyphen.
2084 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2085 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2086 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2087 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2088 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2089 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2090 number of bytes that will be collected.
2093 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2094 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2095 setting the variable trace-notes.
2098 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2099 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2100 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2103 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2104 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2105 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2106 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2107 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2110 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2111 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2112 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2116 set debug dwarf2-read
2117 show debug dwarf2-read
2118 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2119 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2121 set debug symtab-create
2122 show debug symtab-create
2123 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2124 creation. The default is off.
2127 show extended-prompt
2128 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2129 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2130 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2131 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2132 prompt is displayed.
2134 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2135 show print entry-values
2136 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2137 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2138 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2140 set debug entry-values
2141 show debug entry-values
2142 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2143 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2145 set basenames-may-differ
2146 show basenames-may-differ
2147 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2148 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2149 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2150 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2151 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2152 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2153 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2154 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2160 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2161 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2162 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2163 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2165 set trace-stop-notes
2166 show trace-stop-notes
2167 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2168 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2169 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2170 started by someone else.
2172 * New remote packets
2176 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2180 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2184 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2188 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2192 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2195 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2196 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2200 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2204 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2206 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2208 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2210 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2212 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2213 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2214 matches the given regular expression.
2216 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2218 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2219 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2221 * New command line options
2223 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2224 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2226 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2227 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2229 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2230 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2231 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2233 * GDB now understands thread names.
2235 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2236 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2238 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2239 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2242 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2243 has been integrated into GDB.
2247 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2248 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2249 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2251 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2252 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2253 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2254 and allows for more dynamic content.
2256 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2257 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2258 have an is_valid method.
2260 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2261 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2262 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2264 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2266 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2267 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2268 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2269 that function like so:
2271 result = some_value (10,20)
2273 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2274 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2275 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2277 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2278 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2279 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2280 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2281 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2283 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2284 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2286 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2288 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2291 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2292 holds the thread's name.
2294 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2295 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2296 occurring in the process being debugged.
2297 The following events are currently supported:
2298 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2299 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2300 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2304 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2305 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2307 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2309 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2310 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2311 was added to GCC 4.5.
2313 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2314 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2315 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2316 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2317 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2318 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2320 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2321 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2322 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2323 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2324 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2326 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2327 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2328 execution to a label.
2330 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2331 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2332 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2333 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2335 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2336 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2337 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2340 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2342 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2343 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2344 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2345 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2346 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2347 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2350 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2352 While now you see this:
2355 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2357 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2360 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2361 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2362 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2363 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2365 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2366 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2367 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2368 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2369 section in the user manual for more details.
2371 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2373 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2374 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2376 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2378 * New native configurations
2380 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2384 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2386 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2387 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2388 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2389 in the GDB user manual.
2391 * Guile support was removed.
2393 * New features in the GNU simulator
2395 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2397 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2399 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2401 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2403 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2404 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2405 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2406 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2407 was always disabled for such configurations.
2411 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2413 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2414 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2424 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2425 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2426 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2428 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2430 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2431 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2432 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2433 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2435 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2436 mentioned flavors of operators.
2438 ** static const class members
2440 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2441 class definition has been fixed.
2443 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2445 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2446 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2447 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2448 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2449 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2450 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2452 * Static tracepoints
2454 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2455 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2456 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2457 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2458 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2459 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2460 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2461 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2462 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2463 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2464 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2465 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2466 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2467 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2468 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2469 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2470 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2471 the "New remote packets" section below.
2473 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2475 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2476 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2477 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2478 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2482 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2483 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2484 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2485 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2486 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2487 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2488 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2490 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2493 * New remote packets
2497 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2501 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2502 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2503 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2504 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2505 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2506 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2510 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2514 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2517 qXfer:statictrace:read
2519 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2520 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2521 to gdb's qSupported query.
2525 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2529 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2530 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2532 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2533 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2536 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2538 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2539 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2540 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2541 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2543 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2544 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2545 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2546 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2547 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2548 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2549 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2551 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2552 for static tracepoints support.
2554 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2556 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2557 it understands register description.
2559 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2561 * X86 general purpose registers
2563 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2564 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2565 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2566 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2567 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2569 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2570 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2571 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2572 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2573 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2574 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2576 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2577 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2578 in the specified file.
2580 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2581 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2582 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2583 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2584 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2585 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2586 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2587 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2588 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2589 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2593 eval template, expressions...
2594 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2595 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2597 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2598 show target-file-system-kind
2599 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2602 save breakpoints <filename>
2603 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2604 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2605 definitions, use the `source' command.
2607 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2610 info static-tracepoint-markers
2611 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2613 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2614 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2615 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2619 Enable and disable observer mode.
2621 set may-write-registers on|off
2622 set may-write-memory on|off
2623 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2624 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2625 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2626 set may-interrupt on|off
2627 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2628 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2629 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2630 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2631 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2632 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2633 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2635 set record memory-query on|off
2636 show record memory-query
2637 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2638 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2643 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2647 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2648 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2649 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2650 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2651 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2653 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
2654 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2655 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2656 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
2658 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
2659 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2661 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
2663 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
2665 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
2667 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
2668 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
2669 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
2671 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
2672 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
2673 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
2674 regular breakpoints.
2678 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2680 * D language support.
2681 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
2684 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
2685 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
2686 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
2687 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
2688 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
2690 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
2691 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
2692 conditions of the form:
2694 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
2696 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
2697 interface mentioned above.
2699 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
2703 ** Namespace Support
2705 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
2706 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
2707 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
2708 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
2709 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
2713 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
2714 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
2719 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
2720 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
2724 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
2729 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
2732 * Multi-program debugging.
2734 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
2735 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
2736 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
2737 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
2738 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
2739 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
2740 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
2741 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
2743 * New tracing features
2745 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
2747 ** Trace state variables
2749 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
2750 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
2751 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
2752 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2753 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2754 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2755 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2756 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2757 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2758 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
2762 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2763 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2764 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2765 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2766 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2767 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2768 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2769 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2770 the regular trace command.
2772 ** Disconnected tracing
2774 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2775 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2776 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2777 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2778 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2782 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2783 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2784 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2785 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2786 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2787 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2790 ** Circular trace buffer
2792 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2793 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2794 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2795 not be available for all target agents.
2800 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2801 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2804 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2805 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2808 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2809 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2812 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2813 "set script-extension" (see below).
2815 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2817 record save [<FILENAME>]
2818 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2819 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2821 record restore <FILENAME>
2822 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2823 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2825 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2828 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2829 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2830 inferior has loaded.
2835 maint info program-spaces
2836 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2838 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2839 show remote interrupt-sequence
2840 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2841 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2842 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2843 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2844 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2846 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2847 show remote interrupt-on-connect
2848 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2849 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2852 set remotebreak [on | off]
2854 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2856 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2857 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2860 List trace state variables and their values.
2862 delete tvariable $NAME ...
2863 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2866 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2867 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2869 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2870 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2872 * New expression syntax
2874 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2875 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2879 set follow-exec-mode new|same
2880 show follow-exec-mode
2881 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2882 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2883 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2885 set default-collect EXPR, ...
2886 show default-collect
2887 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2888 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2889 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2891 set disconnected-tracing
2892 show disconnected-tracing
2893 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2894 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2897 set circular-trace-buffer
2898 show circular-trace-buffer
2899 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2900 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2901 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2902 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2904 set script-extension off|soft|strict
2905 show script-extension
2906 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2907 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2908 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2909 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2911 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2913 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2914 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2915 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2916 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2917 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2918 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2919 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2922 * Python API Improvements
2924 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2925 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2926 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2928 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2929 `is_base_class' attribute.
2931 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2933 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2934 evaluate an expression.
2936 * New remote packets
2939 Define a trace state variable.
2942 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2945 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2948 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2951 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2955 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2957 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2958 much more reliable. In particular:
2959 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2960 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2961 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2962 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2963 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2964 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2965 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2966 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2967 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2968 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2969 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2970 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2971 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2972 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2973 non-threaded programs.
2975 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2976 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2977 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2980 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
2982 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2983 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2984 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2985 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2986 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2988 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2989 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2990 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2991 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2992 for tracepoint actions.
2994 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2995 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2996 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
2998 * Process record and replay
3000 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3001 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3002 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3005 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3006 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3007 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3010 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3011 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3014 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3015 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3016 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3017 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3018 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3019 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3020 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3021 the installation instructions for more information.
3023 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3024 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3025 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3026 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3028 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3029 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3031 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3032 now complete on file names.
3034 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3035 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3036 For instance, consider:
3038 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3039 # struct example variable;
3042 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3043 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3045 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3046 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3048 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3049 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3052 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3053 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3054 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3056 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3057 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3058 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3059 and simulator targets may also provide them.
3061 * New remote packets
3064 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3067 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3068 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3069 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3072 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3073 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3076 Obtains additional operating system information
3080 Read or write additional signal information.
3082 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3084 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3085 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3086 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3088 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3089 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3091 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3092 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3093 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
3095 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3096 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3098 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3100 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3102 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3103 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3105 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
3106 list of section offsets.
3108 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3109 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3110 have also been fixed.
3112 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3113 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3114 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3116 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3119 template<typename T> class C { };
3122 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3124 ptype C<char const *>
3125 ptype C<char const*>
3126 ptype C<const char *>
3127 ptype C<const char*>
3129 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3131 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3132 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3134 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3135 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3136 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3138 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3139 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3141 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3144 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3145 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3147 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3148 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3153 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3154 available is determined at configure time.
3156 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3158 * Ada tasking support
3160 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3164 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3166 Print detailed information about task number N.
3168 Print the task number of the current task.
3170 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3172 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3173 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3175 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3177 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3178 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3179 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3180 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3181 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3182 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3185 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3186 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3189 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3190 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3191 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3192 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3195 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3197 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3198 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3199 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3200 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3201 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3203 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3204 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3205 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3206 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3207 --enable-targets configure option.
3209 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3211 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3212 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3213 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3214 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3215 section in the user manual for more information.
3217 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3218 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3219 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3220 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3221 extensions on linux targets.
3223 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3225 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3226 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3227 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3228 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3229 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3230 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3231 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3232 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3233 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3235 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3237 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3239 maint set python print-stack
3240 maint show python print-stack
3241 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3244 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3249 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3253 Show operating system information about processes.
3256 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3259 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3262 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3265 Kill inferior number NUM.
3269 set spu stop-on-load
3270 show spu stop-on-load
3271 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3273 set spu auto-flush-cache
3274 show spu auto-flush-cache
3275 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3276 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3278 set sh calling-convention
3279 show sh calling-convention
3280 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3283 show debug timestamp
3284 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3286 set disassemble-next-line
3287 show disassemble-next-line
3288 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3291 set remote noack-packet
3292 show remote noack-packet
3293 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3294 under "New remote packets."
3296 set remote query-attached-packet
3297 show remote query-attached-packet
3298 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3300 set remote read-siginfo-object
3301 show remote read-siginfo-object
3302 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3305 set remote write-siginfo-object
3306 show remote write-siginfo-object
3307 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3310 set remote reverse-continue
3311 show remote reverse-continue
3312 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3314 set remote reverse-step
3315 show remote reverse-step
3316 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3318 set displaced-stepping
3319 show displaced-stepping
3320 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3321 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3322 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3325 show debug displaced
3326 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3328 maint set internal-error
3329 maint show internal-error
3330 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3332 maint set internal-warning
3333 maint show internal-warning
3334 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3339 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3341 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3342 show multiple-symbols
3343 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3344 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3345 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3347 set breakpoint always-inserted
3348 show breakpoint always-inserted
3349 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3350 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3351 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3353 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3354 show arm fallback-mode
3355 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3357 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3358 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3359 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3360 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3362 set disable-randomization
3363 show disable-randomization
3364 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3365 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3366 multiple debugging sessions.
3370 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3375 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3376 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3377 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3378 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3380 set target-wide-charset
3381 show target-wide-charset
3382 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3383 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3385 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3387 set tcp connect-timeout
3388 show tcp connect-timeout
3389 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3390 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3391 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3393 set libthread-db-search-path
3394 show libthread-db-search-path
3395 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3398 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3399 show schedule-multiple
3400 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3401 the current process.
3405 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3406 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3407 affecting correctness.
3409 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3410 show interactive-mode
3411 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3412 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3413 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3414 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3415 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3420 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3421 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3422 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3426 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3427 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3428 alias for the `fork' command.
3431 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3432 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3433 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3436 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3437 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3438 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3442 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3443 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3444 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3447 * New native configurations
3449 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3451 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3455 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3456 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3457 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3460 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3461 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3467 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3469 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3471 * New native configurations
3473 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3474 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3478 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3479 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3481 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3483 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3484 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3485 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3486 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3488 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3489 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3491 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3494 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3495 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3496 and in inlined functions.
3498 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3499 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3500 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3502 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3504 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3505 registers on PowerPC targets.
3507 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3508 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3510 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3511 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3513 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3514 extended-remote mode.
3516 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3517 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3518 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3519 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3521 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3522 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3523 target architectures.
3525 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3526 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3527 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3528 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3530 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3533 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3534 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3536 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3537 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3538 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3539 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3541 - Improved command completion in Ada
3544 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3549 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3550 show print frame-arguments
3551 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3552 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3557 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3564 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3566 * New remote packets
3573 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3576 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3580 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3582 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3584 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3585 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3586 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3588 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3589 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3590 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3592 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3593 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3596 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3597 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3599 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3600 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3602 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3604 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3605 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3606 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3608 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3609 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3611 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3612 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3615 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3616 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3617 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3619 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3622 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3623 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3624 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3626 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3628 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3630 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3631 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3632 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3634 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3635 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3637 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3638 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3639 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3640 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3641 Windows and SymbianOS).
3643 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3644 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3646 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3647 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3653 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3654 when debugging using remote targets.
3656 set mem inaccessible-by-default
3657 show mem inaccessible-by-default
3658 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3659 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3660 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3661 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3662 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3664 set breakpoint auto-hw
3665 show breakpoint auto-hw
3666 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3667 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3668 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
3669 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
3670 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
3671 including "next" and "finish".
3674 catch exception unhandled
3675 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
3678 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
3682 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
3683 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
3684 an alias to "set sysroot".
3687 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
3688 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
3691 * New native configurations
3693 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
3696 unset tdesc filename
3698 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
3699 not query the target for its built-in description.
3703 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
3704 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
3705 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
3707 * New remote packets
3710 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
3711 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
3713 qXfer:features:read:
3714 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
3719 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
3720 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
3722 qXfer:libraries:read:
3723 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
3724 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
3725 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
3726 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
3730 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3738 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
3739 i[34567]86-*-netware*
3740 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
3741 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
3743 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
3746 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
3747 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
3756 * Other removed features
3763 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3770 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3775 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3776 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3781 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3782 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3784 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3786 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3787 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3788 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3789 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3791 MIPS ".pdr" sections
3793 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3794 in debugging information.
3798 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3799 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3801 set mips stack-arg-size
3802 set mips saved-gpreg-size
3804 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3806 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
3811 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
3813 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3814 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3815 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3817 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3818 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3821 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3822 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3824 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3825 stub provides the required support.
3827 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3828 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3833 unset substitute-path
3834 show substitute-path
3835 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3836 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3837 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3838 between compilation and debugging.
3842 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3843 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3844 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3848 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3850 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3851 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3853 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3855 * New remote packets
3858 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3859 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3860 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3861 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3865 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3866 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3868 qXfer:memory-map:read:
3869 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3870 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3875 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3877 * Removed remote packets
3880 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3881 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3883 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
3887 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3889 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3893 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3894 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3896 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3898 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3900 restart <n> Return the program state to a
3901 previously saved state.
3903 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3905 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3907 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3908 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3910 info forks List forks of the user program that
3911 are available to be debugged.
3913 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3914 forks of the user program that are
3915 available to be debugged.
3917 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3918 that are available to be debugged (and
3919 kill the forked process).
3921 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3922 that are available to be debugged (and
3923 allow the process to continue).
3927 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3929 * Improved Windows host support
3931 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3932 native console support, and remote communications using either
3933 network sockets or serial ports.
3935 * Improved Modula-2 language support
3937 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3938 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3939 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3940 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3941 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3942 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3946 The ARM rdi-share module.
3948 The Netware NLM debug server.
3950 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
3952 * New native configurations
3954 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
3955 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3959 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3961 * New command line options
3963 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3964 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3965 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3966 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3967 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3968 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3969 with the --command (-x) option.
3971 * Deprecated commands removed
3973 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3977 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3978 othernames set arm disassembler
3979 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3980 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3981 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3984 * New BSD user-level threads support
3986 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3987 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3990 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3991 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3992 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3994 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3995 are not yet supported.
3997 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3998 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4000 * REMOVED configurations and files
4002 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4003 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4004 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4006 * New "set print array-indexes" command
4008 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4009 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4012 * VAX floating point support
4014 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4016 * User-defined command support
4018 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4019 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4020 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4022 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4024 * New command line option
4026 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4029 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4031 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4032 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4033 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4034 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4035 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4037 * Internationalization
4039 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4040 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4041 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4045 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4046 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4047 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4049 * New native configurations
4051 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4055 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4056 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4058 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4060 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4061 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4062 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4065 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4066 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4067 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4077 powerpc bdm protocol
4079 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4080 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4082 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4084 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4085 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4086 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4087 permanently REMOVED.
4096 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4098 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4100 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4101 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4104 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4106 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4107 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4108 IRIX long double values).
4112 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4113 command. This problem has been fixed.
4115 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4117 * Fix for ``many threads''
4119 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4120 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4123 ptrace: No such process.
4124 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4126 This problem has been fixed.
4128 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4130 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4133 * New ``start'' command.
4135 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4137 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4139 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4140 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4141 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4143 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4144 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4145 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4146 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4147 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4148 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4149 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4150 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4151 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4153 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
4155 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4156 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4157 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4158 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4159 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4161 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4162 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4163 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4165 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4167 * New native configurations
4169 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4170 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4171 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4172 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4173 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4174 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4175 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4177 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4179 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4180 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4181 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4182 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4183 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4184 work, was also included.
4186 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4187 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4197 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4198 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4200 * REMOVED configurations and files
4202 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4203 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4204 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4205 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4206 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4207 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4208 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4209 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4210 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4211 sonymips mips-sony-*
4212 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4214 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4216 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4218 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4219 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4220 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4221 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4224 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4226 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4227 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4228 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4229 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4230 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4231 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4234 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4236 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4238 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4239 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4240 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4242 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4244 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4245 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4247 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4249 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4250 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4251 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4253 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4255 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4256 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4258 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4260 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4261 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4262 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4264 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4266 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4267 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4268 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4270 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4272 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4274 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4275 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4277 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4279 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4280 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4281 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4282 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4284 * Revised SPARC target
4286 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4287 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4288 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4289 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4290 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4294 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4295 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4296 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4299 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4301 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4302 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4305 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4307 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4308 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4309 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4310 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4311 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4312 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4313 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4314 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4315 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4317 * New native configurations
4319 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4320 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4321 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4322 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4323 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4325 * New debugging protocols
4327 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4329 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4331 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4332 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4333 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4335 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4337 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4338 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4339 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4340 permanently REMOVED.
4342 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4343 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4344 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4345 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4346 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4347 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4348 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4349 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4350 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4351 sonymips mips-sony-*
4352 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4354 * REMOVED configurations and files
4356 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4357 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4358 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4359 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4360 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4361 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4362 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4363 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4364 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4365 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4366 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4367 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4368 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4369 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4370 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4371 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4372 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4374 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4378 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4379 integrated into GDB.
4381 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4383 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4384 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4385 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4388 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4389 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4390 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4394 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4395 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4396 remote protocol documentation for details.
4398 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4400 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4401 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4402 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4405 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4407 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4408 per-thread variables.
4410 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4412 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4413 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4415 * Separate debug info.
4417 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4418 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4419 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4420 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4421 and optional debug files.
4423 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4425 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4426 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4429 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4430 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4434 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4435 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4436 considered "useable".
4438 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4440 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4441 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4444 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4446 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4447 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4449 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4451 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4452 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4455 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4457 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4458 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4462 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4463 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4464 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4465 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4466 data, for more informative profiling results.
4468 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4470 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4471 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4472 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4474 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4477 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4478 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4479 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4480 in a subsequent -var-update.
4482 * New native configurations.
4484 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4486 * Multi-arched targets.
4488 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4489 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4491 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4493 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4494 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4495 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4496 permanently REMOVED.
4498 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4499 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4500 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4501 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4502 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4503 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4504 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4505 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4506 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4507 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4508 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4509 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4511 * REMOVED configurations and files
4514 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4515 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4516 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4517 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4518 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4519 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4521 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4522 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4523 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4524 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4525 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4526 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4528 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4530 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4531 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4532 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4533 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4534 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4536 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4538 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4540 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4541 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4542 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4543 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4544 shared libs like mad''.
4546 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4548 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4549 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4550 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4551 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4553 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4555 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4556 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4559 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4560 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4562 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4563 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4565 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4566 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4567 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4568 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4570 * Multi-arched targets.
4572 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4573 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4575 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4576 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4577 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4581 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4584 * New native configurations
4586 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4587 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4588 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4589 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4591 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4593 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4594 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4595 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4596 permanently REMOVED.
4598 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4599 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4600 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4601 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4602 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4603 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4604 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4605 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4606 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4607 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4609 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4610 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4612 * OBSOLETE languages
4614 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4616 * REMOVED configurations and files
4618 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4619 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4620 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4621 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4622 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4624 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4626 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4628 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4629 commands. The default is 1024.
4631 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4633 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4635 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4637 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4638 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4639 from a file into memory (restore).
4641 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4643 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4644 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4645 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4647 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4655 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4656 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4657 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4659 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4660 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4661 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4663 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
4664 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
4665 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
4667 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
4668 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
4669 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
4671 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
4673 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
4675 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
4676 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
4677 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
4678 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
4679 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
4680 (notably embedded) targets.
4682 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
4684 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
4685 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
4686 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
4687 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
4689 * New command line option
4691 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
4693 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4695 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
4696 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
4697 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
4698 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
4699 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4700 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4701 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4702 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4703 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4704 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4706 * Changes in ARM configurations.
4708 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
4709 configuration is fully multi-arch.
4711 * New native configurations
4713 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
4714 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
4715 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
4716 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
4720 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
4722 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4724 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4725 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4726 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4727 permanently REMOVED.
4729 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4730 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4731 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4732 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4733 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4735 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4737 * REMOVED configurations and files
4739 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4741 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4742 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4743 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4744 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4745 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4746 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4747 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4748 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4749 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4750 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4751 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
4753 * Changes to command line processing
4755 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4756 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4758 * Changes to key bindings
4760 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4762 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4764 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4766 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4769 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4771 Numerous documentation fixes.
4773 Numerous testsuite fixes.
4775 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
4777 * New native configurations
4779 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4780 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
4781 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
4782 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4783 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
4784 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
4788 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
4790 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
4792 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4794 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
4795 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4796 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4797 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4798 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4800 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4801 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4802 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4803 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4804 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4805 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4806 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4807 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
4809 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4810 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4812 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4813 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4814 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4815 permanently REMOVED.
4817 * REMOVED configurations and files
4819 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4820 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4822 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4826 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
4828 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
4829 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4834 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4836 * The MI enabled by default.
4838 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4839 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4840 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4841 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4842 which is now deprecated.
4844 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4846 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4847 main features are supported:
4849 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4851 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4854 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4856 - a Pascal expression parser.
4858 However, some important features are not yet supported.
4860 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4862 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4864 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4865 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4867 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4869 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4871 * Changes in completion.
4873 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4874 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4875 users expect at the shell prompt.
4877 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4878 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4879 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4880 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4881 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4882 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4883 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4885 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4887 * New platform-independent commands:
4889 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4890 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4891 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4893 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4895 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4896 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4897 many threads as your system allows you to have.
4899 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4901 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4902 multi-threaded programs though.
4904 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
4906 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4908 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4909 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4912 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4914 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4915 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4916 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4917 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4918 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4921 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4922 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4923 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4925 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4927 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4928 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4930 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4931 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4934 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4935 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4936 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4937 a given linear address.
4939 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4940 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4941 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4943 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4945 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4947 * Changes in documentation.
4949 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4950 Documentation License.
4952 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4955 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4957 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4960 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4961 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4962 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4964 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4966 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4967 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4968 contents of this file.
4972 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
4974 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
4976 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4978 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4979 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4980 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4981 greater level of detail.
4983 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4985 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4986 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4987 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4990 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4992 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4993 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4994 machines ``out of the box''.
4996 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4997 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4998 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4999 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5000 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5002 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5003 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5004 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5005 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5006 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5008 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5009 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5012 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5015 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5016 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5017 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5018 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5020 * New native configurations
5022 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5023 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5027 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5028 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5029 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5030 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5032 * OBSOLETE configurations
5034 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5035 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5037 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5040 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5041 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5042 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5043 be permanently REMOVED.
5045 * Gould support removed
5047 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5049 * New features for SVR4
5051 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5052 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5053 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5055 * Many C++ enhancements
5057 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5058 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5060 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5062 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5063 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5064 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5065 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5067 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5068 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5070 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
5072 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5073 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5074 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5076 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5077 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5079 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5081 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5082 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5083 include ``set remote P-packet''.
5085 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5087 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5088 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5089 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5091 * ``apropos'' command added.
5093 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5094 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5095 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5099 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5100 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
5101 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5102 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5103 enabled by configuring with:
5105 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5107 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5109 * New native configurations
5111 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5112 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5113 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5117 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5118 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5119 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5121 * OBSOLETE configurations
5123 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5125 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5126 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5127 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5128 be permanently REMOVED.
5132 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5133 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5134 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5135 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5136 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5137 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5138 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5143 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5145 * set extension-language
5147 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5148 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5149 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5150 set extension-language .c c++
5151 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5152 and their associated languages.
5154 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5156 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5157 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5158 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5162 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5163 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5165 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5166 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5168 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5169 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5170 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5171 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5172 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5173 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5174 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5175 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5177 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5178 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5179 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5180 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5184 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5185 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5186 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5187 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5188 for xdb and dbx commands.
5192 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5193 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5194 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5196 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5197 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5198 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5200 * Debugging across forks
5202 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5207 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5208 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5209 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5211 * GDB remote protocol additions
5213 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5214 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5215 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5216 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5218 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5219 full 64-bit address. The command
5221 set remoteaddresssize 32
5223 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5224 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5227 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5228 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5230 maint packet heythere
5232 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5233 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5236 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5237 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5238 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5240 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5242 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5243 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5244 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5246 * mask-address variable for Mips
5248 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5249 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5250 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5252 * Higher serial baud rates
5254 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5255 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5256 to achieve all of these rates.)
5260 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5261 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5264 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5266 * New native configurations
5268 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5269 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5270 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5271 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5272 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5273 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5274 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5278 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5279 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5280 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5281 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5282 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5283 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5284 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5285 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5286 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5287 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5288 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5290 * New debugging protocols
5292 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5293 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5294 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5295 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5296 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5297 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5301 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5302 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5307 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5308 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5310 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5312 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5313 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5314 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5316 * Live range splitting
5318 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5319 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5320 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5324 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5325 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5329 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5330 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5331 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5336 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5341 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5342 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5343 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5344 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5345 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5346 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5350 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5351 the symbol at the specified address.
5355 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5356 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5357 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5358 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5359 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5363 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5364 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5365 of most MIPS variants.
5369 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5370 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5371 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5375 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5376 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5377 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5378 the possible architectures.
5380 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5382 * New native configurations
5384 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5385 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5386 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5387 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5388 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5389 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5393 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5394 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5395 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5396 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5397 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5399 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5403 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5404 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5405 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5406 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5407 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5411 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5413 * Windows 95/NT native
5415 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5416 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5417 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5418 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5419 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5421 * dont-repeat command
5423 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5424 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5425 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5426 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5428 * Send break instead of ^C
5430 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5431 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5432 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5434 * Remote protocol timeout
5436 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5437 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5438 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5440 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5442 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5443 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5444 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5445 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5446 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5448 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5449 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5450 automatically on hpux10.
5452 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5454 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5456 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5458 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5459 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5460 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5461 every character. The default value is 1050.
5463 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5465 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5466 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5467 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5468 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5469 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5470 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5472 * Speedups for remote debugging
5474 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5475 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5476 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5478 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5480 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5481 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5483 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5485 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5487 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5488 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5490 * Remote targets use caching
5492 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5493 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5494 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5495 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5496 off' turns the the data cache off.
5498 * Remote targets may have threads
5500 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5501 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5502 gdb/remote.c for details.
5506 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5507 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5508 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5509 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5510 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5511 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5512 sequence is something like
5514 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5516 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5520 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5521 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5522 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5523 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5524 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5525 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5526 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5527 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5531 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5532 but does simplify configuration and building.
5536 GDB now supports hpux10.
5538 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5540 * New native configurations
5542 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5543 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5544 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5545 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5549 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5550 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5551 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5552 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5555 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5557 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5558 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5559 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5560 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5561 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5563 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5565 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5566 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5569 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5571 To execute the command use:
5574 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5575 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5576 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5578 * New `if' and `while' commands
5580 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5581 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5582 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5583 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5584 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5585 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5586 if the expression is zero.
5588 * Fortran source language mode
5590 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5591 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5592 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5593 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5596 * Better HPUX support
5598 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5599 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5600 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5601 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5602 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5608 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5609 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5615 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5616 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5619 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5620 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5622 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5624 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5625 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5626 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5627 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5628 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5629 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5631 * New DOS host serial code
5633 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5634 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5637 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5639 * New "complete" command
5641 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5642 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5644 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5646 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5647 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5649 * Breakpoint hit counts
5651 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5652 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5653 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5654 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5655 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5658 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5660 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5661 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5662 arrays actually contain only short strings.
5664 * Shared library breakpoints
5666 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
5667 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
5669 * Hardware watchpoints
5671 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
5672 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
5674 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
5678 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
5679 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
5681 * Improved Irix 5 support
5683 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
5685 * Improved HPPA support
5687 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
5689 * New native configurations
5691 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
5692 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5693 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
5694 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
5698 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5699 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5702 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5704 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5705 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
5709 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
5710 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
5712 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
5714 * Irix 5 is now supported
5718 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
5719 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
5720 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
5721 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
5722 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
5725 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
5727 * User visible changes:
5731 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
5732 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
5733 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
5734 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
5735 debugging info for the mips target).
5737 * DEC Alpha native support
5739 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
5740 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
5741 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
5742 Alpha-specific notes.
5744 * Preliminary thread implementation
5746 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
5748 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
5750 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
5751 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
5754 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5756 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5757 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5758 call methods, ...etc.
5760 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5762 * User visible changes:
5764 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5765 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5766 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5767 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5769 Filename completion now works.
5771 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5772 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5773 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5775 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5776 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5777 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5778 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5779 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5783 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5784 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5787 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5791 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5792 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5793 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5797 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5798 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5799 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5800 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5801 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5805 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5806 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5807 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5809 * New targets supported
5811 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5812 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5813 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5814 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5815 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5817 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5818 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5819 GO32 memory extender.
5821 * New remote protocols
5823 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5825 * New source languages supported
5827 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5828 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5829 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5832 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5834 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5836 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5837 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5838 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5839 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5840 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5841 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5843 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5845 * Faster and better demangling
5847 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5848 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5849 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5850 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5851 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5852 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5855 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5856 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5857 compiler does not actually implement.
5859 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5861 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5862 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5863 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5864 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5865 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5866 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5869 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5870 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5872 * Improved configure script
5874 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5875 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5876 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5877 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5879 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5880 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5881 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5882 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5883 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5884 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5886 * Documentation improvements
5888 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5889 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5890 before submitting changes.
5892 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5893 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5894 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5895 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5896 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5898 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5899 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5900 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5901 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5902 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5903 around this problem.
5907 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5908 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5909 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5912 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5913 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5915 * New native hosts supported
5917 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5918 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5920 * New targets supported
5922 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5924 * New file formats supported
5926 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5927 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5931 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5933 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5934 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5936 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5937 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5938 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5940 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5941 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5943 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5944 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5945 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5948 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5949 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5950 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5951 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5952 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5954 * Internal improvements
5956 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5957 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5959 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5960 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5961 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5962 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5963 shared code that handles any of them.
5965 * New command line options
5967 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5971 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5972 General Public License.
5974 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5976 * Host/native/target split
5978 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5979 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5980 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5981 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5982 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5984 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5985 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5986 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5987 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5988 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5989 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5990 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5992 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5993 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5994 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5996 * New hosts supported
5998 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5999 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6000 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6002 * New targets supported
6004 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6005 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6007 * New native hosts supported
6009 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6010 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6011 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6013 * New file formats supported
6015 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6016 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6017 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6021 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6022 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6023 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6025 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6027 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6028 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6029 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6030 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6034 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6035 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6036 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6038 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6042 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6043 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6046 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6047 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6049 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6050 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6051 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6052 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6053 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6054 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6056 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6057 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6058 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6059 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6063 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6064 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6065 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6066 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6067 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6069 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6070 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6071 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6072 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6076 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6077 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6078 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6079 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6080 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6081 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6082 each instruction being stepped through.
6084 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6085 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6087 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6088 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6089 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6090 processor with a serial port.
6094 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6095 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6096 supported, and what files each one uses.
6100 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6101 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6102 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6103 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6105 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6106 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6107 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6108 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6112 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6113 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6114 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6115 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6116 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6117 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6119 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6122 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6124 * Better support for C++ function names
6126 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6127 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6128 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6129 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6130 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6132 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6133 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6134 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6135 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6136 for the list of formats.
6138 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6140 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6141 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6142 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6143 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6144 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6145 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6148 * New 'maintenance' command
6150 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6151 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6152 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6154 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6155 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6156 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6157 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6158 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6159 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6161 The following commands are new:
6163 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6164 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6165 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6167 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6169 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6170 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6171 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6172 read after argv processing.
6174 * New hosts supported
6176 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6178 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6180 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6181 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6182 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6183 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6184 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6187 * New targets supported
6189 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6191 * More smarts about finding #include files
6193 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6194 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6195 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6196 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6197 the one that contains your sources.
6199 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6200 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6201 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6203 * Interesting infernals change
6205 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6206 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6207 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6208 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6210 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6212 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6213 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6214 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6216 See the ChangeLog for details.
6218 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6220 * New machines supported (host and target)
6222 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6224 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6226 * New malloc package
6228 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6229 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6230 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6231 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6232 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6233 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6237 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6238 'help info proc' for details.
6240 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6242 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6243 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6246 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6248 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6249 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6250 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6251 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6252 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6253 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6255 * Cross byte order fixes
6257 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6258 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6260 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6262 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6263 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6264 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6265 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6266 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6267 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6268 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6269 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6270 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6271 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6273 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6274 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6275 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6276 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6278 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6279 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6280 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6283 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6285 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6286 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6287 shared across multiple host platforms.
6289 * longjmp() handling
6291 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6292 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6293 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6294 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6298 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6299 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6304 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6305 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6306 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6308 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6310 * New machines supported (host and target)
6312 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6314 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6315 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6317 * New machines supported (target)
6319 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6323 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6324 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6325 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6327 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6328 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6329 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6330 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6331 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6334 * New features for SVR4
6336 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6337 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6338 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6340 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6341 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6342 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6344 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6345 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6347 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6349 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6350 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6351 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6352 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6353 same code linked statically.
6357 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6358 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6359 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6360 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6361 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6362 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6366 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6367 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6368 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6371 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6373 * New machines supported (host and target)
6375 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6376 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6377 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6379 * Almost SCO Unix support
6381 We had hoped to support:
6382 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6383 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6384 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6385 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6387 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6389 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6390 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6391 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6392 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6397 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6398 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6399 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6403 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6404 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6405 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6407 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6409 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6410 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6411 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6413 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6414 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6415 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6416 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6419 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6420 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6421 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6422 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6425 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6426 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6429 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6430 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6431 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6434 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6436 * Improved configuration
6438 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6439 Porting BFD is simpler.
6443 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6444 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6445 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6446 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6450 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6452 * New host supported (not target)
6454 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6457 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6459 * Multiple source language support
6461 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6462 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6463 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6464 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6465 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6466 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6470 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6471 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6472 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6473 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6475 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6476 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6477 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6479 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6480 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6484 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6485 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6486 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6487 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6490 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6492 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6493 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6494 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6495 examining core files.
6499 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6502 * New machines supported (host and target)
6504 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6505 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6506 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6508 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6510 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6512 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6514 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6515 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6516 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6518 * New remote interfaces
6524 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6528 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6530 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6531 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6532 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6533 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6534 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6535 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6536 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6537 stub on the target system.
6539 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6541 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6542 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6543 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6545 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6546 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6549 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6551 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6552 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6554 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6555 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6556 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6558 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6559 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6560 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6561 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6563 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6564 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6565 it is already running. Default is ON.
6567 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6568 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6569 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6570 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6573 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6574 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6575 or the value of the environment variable
6578 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6579 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6582 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6583 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6584 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6586 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6587 history expansion will be performed on
6588 command line input. The default is OFF.
6590 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6591 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6592 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6594 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6595 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6596 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6599 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6600 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6601 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6604 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6605 ``set width'' instead.
6607 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6608 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6609 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6610 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6612 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6615 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6618 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6621 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6624 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6626 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6627 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6628 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6632 * Support for Shared Libraries
6634 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6635 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6636 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6637 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6638 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6639 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6640 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6641 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6643 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6644 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6645 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6647 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6652 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6653 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6654 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6655 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6656 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6657 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6659 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6661 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6663 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6664 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6665 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6668 * C++ multiple inheritance
6670 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
6673 * C++ exception handling
6675 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
6676 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
6677 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
6680 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
6681 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
6682 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
6684 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
6685 current stack frame.
6688 * Minor command changes
6690 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
6691 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
6692 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
6694 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
6695 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
6696 frames without printing.
6698 * New directory command
6700 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6701 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6702 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6703 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6704 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6706 * Configuring GDB for compilation
6708 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
6711 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
6712 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
6713 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
6714 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob