1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.3:
6 * d10v `regs' command deprecated
8 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
9 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
13 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
14 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
15 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
16 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
17 data, for more informative profiling results.
19 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
21 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
22 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
23 "mi1", can be enabled by sepcifying the option "-i=mi1".
25 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
28 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
29 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
30 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
31 in a subsequent -var-update.
33 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
35 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
36 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
37 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
40 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
41 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
42 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
44 * REMOVED configurations and files
47 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
48 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
49 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
50 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
51 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
52 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
54 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
55 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
56 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
57 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
58 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
59 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
61 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
63 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
64 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
65 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
66 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
67 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
69 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
71 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
73 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
74 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
75 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
76 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
77 shared libs like mad''.
79 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
81 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
82 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
83 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
84 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
86 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
88 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
89 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
92 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
93 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
95 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
96 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
98 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
99 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
100 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
101 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
103 * Multi-arched targets.
105 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
106 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
108 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
109 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
110 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
114 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
117 * New native configurations
119 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
120 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
121 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
122 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
124 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
126 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
127 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
128 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
131 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
132 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
133 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
134 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
135 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
136 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
137 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
138 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
139 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
140 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
142 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
143 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
147 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
149 * REMOVED configurations and files
151 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
152 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
153 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
154 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
155 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
157 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
159 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
161 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
162 commands. The default is 1024.
164 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
166 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
168 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
170 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
171 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
172 from a file into memory (restore).
174 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
176 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
177 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
178 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
180 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
188 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
189 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
190 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
192 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
193 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
194 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
196 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
197 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
198 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
200 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
201 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
202 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
204 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
206 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
208 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
209 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
210 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
211 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
212 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
213 (notably embedded) targets.
215 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
217 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
218 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
219 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
220 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
222 * New command line option
224 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
226 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
228 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
229 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
230 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
231 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
232 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
233 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
234 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
235 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
236 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
237 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
239 * Changes in ARM configurations.
241 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
242 configuration is fully multi-arch.
244 * New native configurations
246 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
247 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
248 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
249 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
253 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
255 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
257 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
258 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
259 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
262 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
263 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
264 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
265 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
266 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
268 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
270 * REMOVED configurations and files
272 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
274 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
275 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
276 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
277 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
278 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
279 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
280 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
281 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
282 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
283 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
284 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
286 * Changes to command line processing
288 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
289 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
291 * Changes to key bindings
293 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
295 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
297 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
299 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
302 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
304 Numerous documentation fixes.
306 Numerous testsuite fixes.
308 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
310 * New native configurations
312 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
313 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
314 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
315 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
317 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
321 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
323 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
325 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
327 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
328 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
329 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
330 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
331 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
333 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
334 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
335 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
336 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
337 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
338 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
339 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
340 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
342 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
343 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
345 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
346 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
347 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
350 * REMOVED configurations and files
352 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
353 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
355 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
359 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
361 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
362 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
367 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
369 * The MI enabled by default.
371 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
372 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
373 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
374 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
375 which is now deprecated.
377 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
379 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
380 main features are supported:
382 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
384 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
387 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
389 - a Pascal expression parser.
391 However, some important features are not yet supported.
393 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
395 - there are some problems with boolean types;
397 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
398 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
400 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
402 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
404 * Changes in completion.
406 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
407 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
408 users expect at the shell prompt.
410 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
411 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
412 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
413 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
414 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
415 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
416 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
418 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
420 * New platform-independent commands:
422 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
423 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
424 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
426 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
428 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
429 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
430 many threads as your system allows you to have.
432 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
434 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
435 multi-threaded programs though.
437 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
439 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
441 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
442 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
445 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
447 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
448 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
449 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
450 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
451 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
454 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
455 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
456 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
458 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
460 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
461 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
463 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
464 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
467 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
468 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
469 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
470 a given linear address.
472 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
473 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
474 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
476 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
478 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
480 * Changes in documentation.
482 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
483 Documentation License.
485 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
488 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
490 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
493 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
494 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
495 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
497 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
499 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
500 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
501 contents of this file.
505 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
507 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
509 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
511 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
512 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
513 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
514 greater level of detail.
516 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
518 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
519 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
520 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
523 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
525 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
526 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
527 machines ``out of the box''.
529 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
530 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
531 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
532 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
533 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
535 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
536 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
537 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
538 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
539 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
541 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
542 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
545 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
548 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
549 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
550 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
551 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
553 * New native configurations
555 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
556 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
560 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
561 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
562 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
563 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
565 * OBSOLETE configurations
567 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
568 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
570 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
573 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
574 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
575 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
576 be permanently REMOVED.
578 * Gould support removed
580 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
582 * New features for SVR4
584 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
585 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
586 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
588 * Many C++ enhancements
590 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
591 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
593 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
595 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
596 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
597 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
598 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
600 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
601 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
603 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
605 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
606 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
607 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
609 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
610 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
612 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
614 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
615 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
616 include ``set remote P-packet''.
618 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
620 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
621 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
622 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
624 * ``apropos'' command added.
626 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
627 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
628 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
632 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
633 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
634 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
635 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
636 enabled by configuring with:
638 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
640 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
642 * New native configurations
644 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
645 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
646 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
650 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
651 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
652 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
654 * OBSOLETE configurations
656 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
658 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
659 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
660 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
661 be permanently REMOVED.
665 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
666 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
667 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
668 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
669 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
670 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
671 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
676 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
678 * set extension-language
680 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
681 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
682 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
683 set extension-language .c c++
684 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
685 and their associated languages.
687 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
689 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
690 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
691 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
695 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
696 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
698 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
699 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
701 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
702 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
703 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
704 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
705 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
706 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
707 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
708 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
710 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
711 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
712 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
713 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
717 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
718 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
719 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
720 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
721 for xdb and dbx commands.
725 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
726 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
727 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
729 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
730 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
731 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
733 * Debugging across forks
735 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
740 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
741 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
742 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
744 * GDB remote protocol additions
746 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
747 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
748 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
749 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
751 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
752 full 64-bit address. The command
754 set remoteaddresssize 32
756 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
757 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
760 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
761 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
763 maint packet heythere
765 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
766 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
769 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
770 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
771 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
773 * Tracing can collect general expressions
775 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
776 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
777 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
779 * mask-address variable for Mips
781 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
782 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
783 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
785 * Higher serial baud rates
787 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
788 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
789 to achieve all of these rates.)
793 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
794 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
797 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
799 * New native configurations
801 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
802 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
803 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
804 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
805 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
806 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
807 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
811 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
812 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
813 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
814 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
815 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
816 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
817 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
818 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
819 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
820 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
821 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
823 * New debugging protocols
825 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
826 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
827 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
828 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
829 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
830 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
834 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
835 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
840 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
841 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
843 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
845 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
846 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
847 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
849 * Live range splitting
851 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
852 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
853 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
857 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
858 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
862 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
863 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
864 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
869 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
874 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
875 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
876 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
877 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
878 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
879 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
883 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
884 the symbol at the specified address.
888 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
889 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
890 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
891 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
892 file tracepoint.c for more details.
896 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
897 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
898 of most MIPS variants.
902 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
903 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
904 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
908 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
909 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
910 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
911 the possible architectures.
913 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
915 * New native configurations
917 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
918 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
919 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
920 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
921 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
922 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
926 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
927 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
928 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
929 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
930 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
932 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
936 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
937 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
938 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
939 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
940 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
944 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
946 * Windows 95/NT native
948 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
949 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
950 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
951 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
952 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
954 * dont-repeat command
956 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
957 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
958 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
959 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
961 * Send break instead of ^C
963 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
964 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
965 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
967 * Remote protocol timeout
969 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
970 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
971 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
973 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
975 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
976 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
977 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
978 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
979 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
981 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
982 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
983 automatically on hpux10.
985 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
987 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
989 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
991 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
992 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
993 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
994 every character. The default value is 1050.
996 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
998 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
999 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1000 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1001 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1002 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1003 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1005 * Speedups for remote debugging
1007 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1008 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1009 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1011 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1013 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1014 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1016 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1018 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1020 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1021 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1023 * Remote targets use caching
1025 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1026 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1027 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1028 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1029 off' turns the the data cache off.
1031 * Remote targets may have threads
1033 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1034 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1035 gdb/remote.c for details.
1039 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1040 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1041 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1042 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1043 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1044 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1045 sequence is something like
1047 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1049 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1053 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1054 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1055 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1056 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1057 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1058 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1059 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1060 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1064 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1065 but does simplify configuration and building.
1069 GDB now supports hpux10.
1071 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1073 * New native configurations
1075 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1076 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1077 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1078 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1082 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1083 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1084 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1085 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1088 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1090 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1091 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1092 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1093 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1094 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1096 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1098 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1099 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1102 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1104 To execute the command use:
1107 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1108 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1109 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1111 * New `if' and `while' commands
1113 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1114 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1115 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1116 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1117 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1118 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1119 if the expression is zero.
1121 * Fortran source language mode
1123 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1124 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1125 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1126 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1129 * Better HPUX support
1131 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1132 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1133 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1134 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1135 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1141 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1142 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1148 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1149 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1152 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1153 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1155 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1157 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1158 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1159 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1160 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1161 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1162 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1164 * New DOS host serial code
1166 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1167 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1170 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1172 * New "complete" command
1174 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1175 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1177 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1179 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1180 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1182 * Breakpoint hit counts
1184 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1185 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1186 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1187 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1188 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1191 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1193 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1194 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1195 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1197 * Shared library breakpoints
1199 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1200 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1202 * Hardware watchpoints
1204 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1205 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1207 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1211 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1212 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1214 * Improved Irix 5 support
1216 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1218 * Improved HPPA support
1220 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1222 * New native configurations
1224 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1225 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1226 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1227 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1231 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1232 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1235 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1237 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1238 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1242 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1243 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1245 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1247 * Irix 5 is now supported
1251 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1252 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1253 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1254 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1255 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1258 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1260 * User visible changes:
1264 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1265 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1266 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1267 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1268 debugging info for the mips target).
1270 * DEC Alpha native support
1272 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1273 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1274 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1275 Alpha-specific notes.
1277 * Preliminary thread implementation
1279 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1281 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1283 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1284 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1287 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1289 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1290 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1291 call methods, ...etc.
1293 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1295 * User visible changes:
1297 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1298 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1299 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1300 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1302 Filename completion now works.
1304 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1305 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1306 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1308 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1309 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1310 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1311 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1312 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1316 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1317 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1320 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1324 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1325 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1326 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1330 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1331 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1332 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1333 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1334 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1338 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1339 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1340 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1342 * New targets supported
1344 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1345 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1346 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1347 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1348 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1350 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1351 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1352 GO32 memory extender.
1354 * New remote protocols
1356 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1358 * New source languages supported
1360 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1361 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1362 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1365 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1367 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1369 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1370 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1371 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1372 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1373 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1374 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1376 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1378 * Faster and better demangling
1380 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1381 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1382 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1383 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1384 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1385 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1388 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1389 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1390 compiler does not actually implement.
1392 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1394 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1395 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1396 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1397 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1398 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1399 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1402 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1403 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1405 * Improved configure script
1407 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1408 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1409 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1410 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1412 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1413 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1414 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1415 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1416 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1417 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1419 * Documentation improvements
1421 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1422 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1423 before submitting changes.
1425 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1426 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1427 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1428 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1429 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1431 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1432 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1433 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1434 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1435 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1436 around this problem.
1440 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1441 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1442 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1445 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1446 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1448 * New native hosts supported
1450 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1451 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1453 * New targets supported
1455 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1457 * New file formats supported
1459 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1460 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1464 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1466 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1467 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1469 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1470 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1471 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1473 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1474 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1476 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1477 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1478 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1481 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1482 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1483 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1484 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1485 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1487 * Internal improvements
1489 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1490 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1492 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1493 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1494 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1495 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1496 shared code that handles any of them.
1498 * New command line options
1500 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1504 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1505 General Public License.
1507 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1509 * Host/native/target split
1511 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1512 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1513 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1514 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1515 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1517 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1518 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1519 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1520 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1521 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1522 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1523 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1525 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1526 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1527 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1529 * New hosts supported
1531 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1532 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1533 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1535 * New targets supported
1537 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1538 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1540 * New native hosts supported
1542 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1543 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1544 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1546 * New file formats supported
1548 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1549 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1550 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1554 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1555 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1556 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1558 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1560 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1561 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1562 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1563 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1567 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1568 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1569 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1571 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1575 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1576 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1579 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1580 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1582 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1583 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1584 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1585 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1586 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1587 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1589 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1590 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1591 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1592 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1596 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1597 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1598 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1599 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1600 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1602 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1603 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1604 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1605 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1609 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1610 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1611 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1612 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1613 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1614 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1615 each instruction being stepped through.
1617 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1618 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1620 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1621 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1622 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1623 processor with a serial port.
1627 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1628 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1629 supported, and what files each one uses.
1633 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1634 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1635 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1636 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1638 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1639 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1640 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1641 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1645 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1646 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1647 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1648 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1649 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1650 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1652 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1655 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1657 * Better support for C++ function names
1659 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1660 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1661 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1662 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1663 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1665 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1666 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1667 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1668 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1669 for the list of formats.
1671 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1673 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1674 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1675 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1676 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1677 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1678 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1681 * New 'maintenance' command
1683 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1684 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1685 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1687 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1688 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1689 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1690 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1691 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1692 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1694 The following commands are new:
1696 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1697 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1698 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1700 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1702 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1703 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1704 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1705 read after argv processing.
1707 * New hosts supported
1709 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1711 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1713 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1714 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1715 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1716 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1717 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1720 * New targets supported
1722 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1724 * More smarts about finding #include files
1726 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1727 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1728 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1729 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1730 the one that contains your sources.
1732 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1733 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1734 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1736 * Interesting infernals change
1738 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1739 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1740 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1741 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1743 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1745 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1746 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1747 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1749 See the ChangeLog for details.
1751 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1753 * New machines supported (host and target)
1755 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1757 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1759 * New malloc package
1761 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1762 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1763 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1764 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1765 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1766 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1770 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1771 'help info proc' for details.
1773 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1775 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1776 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1779 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1781 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1782 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1783 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1784 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1785 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1786 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1788 * Cross byte order fixes
1790 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1791 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1793 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1795 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1796 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1797 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1798 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1799 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1800 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1801 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1802 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1803 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1804 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1806 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1807 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1808 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1809 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1811 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1812 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1813 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1816 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1818 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1819 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1820 shared across multiple host platforms.
1822 * longjmp() handling
1824 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1825 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1826 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1827 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1831 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1832 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1837 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1838 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1839 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1841 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1843 * New machines supported (host and target)
1845 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1847 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1848 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1850 * New machines supported (target)
1852 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1856 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1857 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1858 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1860 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1861 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1862 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1863 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1864 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1867 * New features for SVR4
1869 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1870 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1871 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1873 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1874 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1875 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1877 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1878 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1880 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1882 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1883 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1884 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1885 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1886 same code linked statically.
1890 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1891 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1892 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1893 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1894 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1895 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1899 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1900 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1901 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1904 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1906 * New machines supported (host and target)
1908 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1909 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1910 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1912 * Almost SCO Unix support
1914 We had hoped to support:
1915 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1916 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1917 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1918 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1920 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1922 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1923 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1924 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1925 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1930 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1931 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1932 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1936 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1937 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1938 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1940 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1942 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1943 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1944 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1946 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1947 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1948 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1949 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1952 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1953 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1954 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1955 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1958 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1959 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1962 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1963 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1964 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1967 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1969 * Improved configuration
1971 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1972 Porting BFD is simpler.
1976 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1977 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1978 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1979 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1983 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1985 * New host supported (not target)
1987 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1990 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1992 * Multiple source language support
1994 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1995 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1996 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1997 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1998 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1999 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2003 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2004 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2005 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2006 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2008 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2009 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2010 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2012 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2013 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2017 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2018 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2019 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2020 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2023 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2025 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2026 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2027 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2028 examining core files.
2032 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2035 * New machines supported (host and target)
2037 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2038 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2039 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2041 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2043 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2045 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2047 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2048 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2049 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2051 * New remote interfaces
2057 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2061 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2063 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2064 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2065 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2066 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2067 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2068 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2069 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2070 stub on the target system.
2072 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2074 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2075 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2076 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2078 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2079 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2082 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2084 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2085 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2087 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2088 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2089 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2091 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2092 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2093 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2094 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2096 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2097 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2098 it is already running. Default is ON.
2100 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2101 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2102 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2103 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2106 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2107 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2108 or the value of the environment variable
2111 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2112 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2115 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2116 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2117 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2119 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2120 history expansion will be performed on
2121 command line input. The default is OFF.
2123 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2124 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2125 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2127 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2128 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2129 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2132 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2133 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2134 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2137 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2138 ``set width'' instead.
2140 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2141 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2142 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2143 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2145 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2148 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2151 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2154 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2157 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2159 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2160 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2161 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2165 * Support for Shared Libraries
2167 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2168 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2169 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2170 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2171 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2172 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2173 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2174 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2176 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2177 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2178 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2180 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2185 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2186 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2187 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2188 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2189 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2190 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2192 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2194 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2196 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2197 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2198 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2201 * C++ multiple inheritance
2203 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2206 * C++ exception handling
2208 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2209 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2210 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2213 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2214 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2215 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2217 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2218 current stack frame.
2221 * Minor command changes
2223 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2224 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2225 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2227 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2228 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2229 frames without printing.
2231 * New directory command
2233 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2234 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2235 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2236 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2237 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2239 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2241 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2244 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2245 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2246 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2247 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob