Remove ptid_equal
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.1
5
6 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
7 for the MIPS target.
8
9 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
10 offset to all sections.
11
12 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
13 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
14 address of individual sections using '-s'.
15
16 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
17 (address of the text section).
18
19 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
20 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
21 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
22 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
23 default.
24
25 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
26 for the rest of the current command.
27
28 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
29 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
30
31 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
32 files created on FreeBSD systems.
33
34 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
35 alignof.
36
37 * New commands
38
39 set debug fbsd-nat
40 show debug fbsd-nat
41 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
42
43 set|show varsize-limit
44 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
45 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
46 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
47
48 set|show record btrace cpu
49 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
50 branch trace decode.
51
52 maint check libthread-db
53 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
54 library
55
56 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
57 maint show check-libthread-db
58 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
59 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
60 perform such checks.
61
62 * Python API
63
64 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
65
66 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
67 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
68
69 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
70
71 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
72 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
73 of convenience variables.
74
75 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
76 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
77 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
78
79 * New targets
80
81 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
82
83 * Removed targets and native configurations
84
85 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
86 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
87 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
88 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
89
90 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
91
92 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
93 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
94 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
95 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
96 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
97 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
98 reported.
99
100 * New configure options
101
102 --enable-codesign=CERT
103 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
104 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
105 gdb to work properly.
106
107 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
108
109 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
110 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
111 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
112
113 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
114 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
115
116 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
117 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
118 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
119 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
120 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
121
122 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
123 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
124 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
125 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
126
127 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
128 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
129
130 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
131 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
132 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
133
134 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
135 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
136 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
137
138 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
139 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
140 environment" command.
141
142 * Completion improvements
143
144 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
145 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
146 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
147 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
148 correctly:
149
150 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
151 (gdb) b function(int)
152
153 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
154 C++ anonymous namespaces:
155
156 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
157 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
158 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
159 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
160
161 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
162 completion support, that better understands what you're
163 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
164 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
165 setting a breakpoint.
166
167 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
168
169 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
170
171 * New command line options (gcore)
172
173 -a
174 Dump all memory mappings.
175
176 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
177
178 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
179 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
180 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
181
182 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
183
184 A::B::func()
185 B::func()
186
187 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
188 on both symbols.
189
190 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
191 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
192 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
193 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
194 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
195 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
196 a breakpoint from Python.
197
198 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
199
200 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
201 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
202 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
203
204 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
205
206 function[abi:cxx11](int)
207 ^^^^^^^^^^^
208
209 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
210 no tag, like:
211
212 (gdb) b function(int)
213
214 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
215
216 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
217
218 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
219
220 * Python Scripting
221
222 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
223 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
224 description of these.
225
226 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
227 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
228 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
229
230 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
231 manual for a further description of this feature.
232
233
234 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
235
236 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
237 specified initial working directory.
238
239 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
240 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
241
242 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
243 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
244
245 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
246 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
247
248 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
249 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
250 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
251 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
252 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
253
254 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
255 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
256 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
257
258 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
259 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
260 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
261 in the *stopped notification.
262
263 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
264 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
265
266 * New remote packets
267
268 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
269 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
270 the inferior when starting it.
271
272 QEnvironmentUnset
273 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
274 before starting the remote inferior.
275
276 QEnvironmentReset
277 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
278 user-set environment variables should be unset).
279
280 QStartupWithShell
281 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
282
283 QSetWorkingDir
284 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
285 working directory.
286
287 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
288 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
289
290 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
291 filter the tests to be run.
292
293 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
294 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
295
296 * New commands
297
298 set|show cwd
299 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
300
301 set|show compile-gcc
302 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
303 with the 'compile' commands.
304
305 set debug separate-debug-file
306 show debug separate-debug-file
307 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
308
309 set dump-excluded-mappings
310 show dump-excluded-mappings
311 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
312 dumped when generating a core file.
313
314 maint info selftests
315 List the registered selftests.
316
317 starti
318 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
319
320 set|show debug or1k
321 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
322
323 set|show print type nested-type-limit
324 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
325 type printer will show.
326
327 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
328 `o' for nexti.
329
330 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
331
332 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
333 'int'.
334
335 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
336 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
337 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
338 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
339
340 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
341 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
342 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
343 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
344 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
345 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
346
347 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
348 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
349 unless you tell it the variable's type:
350
351 (gdb) p var
352 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
353 (gdb) p (float) var
354 $3 = 3.14
355
356 * New native configurations
357
358 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
359 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
360
361 * New targets
362
363 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
364 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
365 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
366
367 * Removed targets and native configurations
368
369 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
370
371 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
372
373 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
374 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
375 available in future Intel CPUs.
376
377 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
378
379 * Python Scripting
380
381 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
382 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
383
384 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
385 instructions.
386
387 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
388
389 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
390
391 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
392 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
393 removed.
394
395 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
396
397 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
398 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
399
400 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
401
402 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
403 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
404 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
405 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
406 features.
407
408 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
409
410 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
411 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
412 debugger.
413
414 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
415
416 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
417 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
418
419 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
420
421 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
422
423 define mycommand
424 set $i = 0
425 while $i < $argc
426 eval "print $arg%d", $i
427 set $i = $i + 1
428 end
429 end
430
431 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
432
433 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
434 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
435
436 * New native configurations
437
438 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
439
440 * New targets
441
442 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
443 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
444
445 * Removed targets and native configurations
446
447 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
448 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
449
450 * New commands
451
452 flash-erase
453 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
454
455 maint print arc arc-instruction address
456 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
457
458 * New options
459
460 set disassembler-options
461 show disassembler-options
462 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
463 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
464 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
465 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
466 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
467
468 * New MI commands
469
470 -target-flash-erase
471 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
472 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
473
474 -file-list-shared-libraries
475 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
476 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
477
478 -catch-handlers
479 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
480 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
481
482 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
483
484 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
485
486 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
487 default. One must now explicitly configure with
488 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
489 option will be removed in a future release.
490
491 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
492 GDB connection.
493
494 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
495 memory backward from the given address. For example:
496
497 (gdb) bt
498 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
499 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
500 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
501 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
502 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
503 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
504 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
505 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
506 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
507
508 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
509 arrays of dynamic types.
510
511 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
512 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
513 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
514 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
515 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
516 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
517
518 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
519 descriptions.
520
521 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
522 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
523 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
524
525 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
526
527 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
528 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
529 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
530 signal received and code location.
531
532 For example:
533
534 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
535 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
536 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
537 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
538
539 * Rust language support.
540 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
541 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
542 Rust.
543
544 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
545
546 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
547 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
548 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
549 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
550 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
551 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
552 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
553 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
554 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
555 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
556 line.
557
558 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
559
560 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
561 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
562
563 * New commands
564
565 skip -file file
566 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
567 skip -function function
568 skip -rfunction regular-expression
569 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
570 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
571 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
572
573 maint info line-table REGEXP
574 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
575
576 maint selftest
577 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
578
579 new-ui INTERP TTY
580 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
581 using the TTY file for input/output.
582
583 * Python Scripting
584
585 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
586 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
587 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
588 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
589 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
590
591 signal-event EVENTID
592 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
593 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
594 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
595 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
596 signalling an event.
597
598 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
599 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
600 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
601
602 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
603 been removed:
604
605 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
606 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
607 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
608 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
609 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
610 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
611
612 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
613 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
614 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
615 bytecode into native code.
616
617 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
618 recording. For example:
619
620 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
621
622 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
623
624 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
625
626 * New targets
627
628 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
629
630 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
631
632 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
633
634 * Per-inferior thread numbers
635
636 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
637 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
638 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
639
640 (gdb) info threads
641 Id Target Id Frame
642 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
643 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
644 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
645 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
646
647 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
648 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
649 are no longer unique between inferiors.
650
651 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
652 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
653 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
654
655 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
656 IDs.
657
658 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
659 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
660
661 (gdb) thread 2.1
662 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
663 (gdb)
664
665 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
666 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
667 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
668 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
669 threads 2.*".
670
671 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
672 all threads.
673
674 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
675 the current thread.
676
677 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
678 current inferior.
679
680 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
681 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
682 example:
683
684 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
685 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
686
687 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
688
689 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
690
691 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
692 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
693
694 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
695 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
696 clients.
697
698 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
699 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
700 at the same time.
701
702 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
703 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
704 into native code.
705
706 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
707
708 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
709 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
710 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
711
712 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
713 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
714
715 * New commands
716
717 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
718 maint show target-non-stop
719 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
720 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
721 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
722
723 maint set bfd-sharing
724 maint show bfd-sharing
725 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
726
727 set debug bfd-cache
728 show debug bfd-cache
729 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
730
731 set debug fbsd-lwp
732 show debug fbsd-lwp
733 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
734
735 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
736 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
737 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
738
739 set remote thread-events
740 show remote thread-events
741 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
742
743 set ada print-signatures on|off
744 show ada print-signatures"
745 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
746 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
747
748 set max-value-size
749 show max-value-size
750 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
751 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
752 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
753
754 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
755 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
756 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
757 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
758 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
759 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
760
761 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
762 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
763
764 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
765 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
766
767 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
768
769 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
770 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
771 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
772 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
773 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
774 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
775
776 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
777 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
778
779 catch handlers
780 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
781
782 * New remote packets
783
784 exec stop reason
785 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
786
787 exec-events feature in qSupported
788 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
789 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
790 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
791 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
792
793 vCtrlC
794 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
795 non-stop mode.
796
797 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
798 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
799
800 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
801 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
802
803 QThreadEvents
804 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
805 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
806 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
807 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
808 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
809 stop for that same thread.
810
811 N stop reply
812 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
813 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
814 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
815
816 QCatchSyscalls
817 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
818 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
819
820 syscall_entry stop reason
821 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
822
823 syscall_return stop reason
824 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
825
826 * Extended-remote exec events
827
828 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
829 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
830 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
831
832 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
833 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
834 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
835
836 * Thread names in remote protocol
837
838 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
839 thread.
840
841 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
842
843 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
844 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
845 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
846 fork and exec catchpoints.
847
848 * Remote syscall events
849
850 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
851 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
852
853 set remote catch-syscall-packet
854 show remote catch-syscall-packet
855 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
856
857 * MI changes
858
859 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
860 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
861 left.
862
863 * Python Scripting
864
865 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
866 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
867 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
868 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
869 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
870 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
871
872 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
873
874 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
875 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
876 including advance SIMD instructions.
877
878 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
879
880 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
881 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
882 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
883 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
884 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
885 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
886 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
887
888 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
889 cpu information :
890 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
891
892 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
893 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
894 remote serial I/O.
895
896 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
897 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
898 and may include things like its command line arguments.
899
900 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
901 is now available on all platforms.
902
903 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
904 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
905 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
906 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
907 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
908 backward compatibility.
909
910 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
911 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
912 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
913 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
914
915 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
916 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
917 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
918 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
919 packets" below.
920
921 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
922
923 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
924
925 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
926 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
927 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
928 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
929 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
930 See "New remote packets" below.
931
932 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
933 available register groups, including target specific groups.
934
935 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
936 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
937 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
938 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
939 are ignored.
940
941 * Guile Scripting
942
943 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
944
945 * Python Scripting
946
947 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
948 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
949 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
950 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
951 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
952 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
953 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
954 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
955 "const" version of the value respectively.
956
957 * New commands
958
959 maint print symbol-cache
960 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
961
962 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
963 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
964
965 maint flush-symbol-cache
966 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
967
968 record btrace bts
969 record bts
970 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
971
972 compile print
973 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
974
975 tui enable
976 tui disable
977 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
978
979 show mpx bound
980 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
981 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
982
983 record btrace pt
984 record pt
985 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
986
987 maint info btrace
988 Print information about branch tracing internals.
989
990 maint btrace packet-history
991 Print the raw branch tracing data.
992
993 maint btrace clear-packet-history
994 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
995
996 maint btrace clear
997 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
998 anew by the next "record" command.
999
1000 * New options
1001
1002 set debug dwarf-die
1003 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1004 show debug dwarf-die
1005 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1006
1007 set debug dwarf-read
1008 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1009 show debug dwarf-read
1010 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1011
1012 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1013 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1014 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1015 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1016
1017 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1018 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1019 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1020 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1021
1022 set debug dwarf-line
1023 show debug dwarf-line
1024 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1025
1026 set max-completions
1027 show max-completions
1028 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1029 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1030 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1031 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1032
1033 set history remove-duplicates
1034 show history remove-duplicates
1035 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1036
1037 maint set symbol-cache-size
1038 maint show symbol-cache-size
1039 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1040
1041 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1042 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1043 BTS format.
1044 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1045 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1046
1047 set debug linux-namespaces
1048 show debug linux-namespaces
1049 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1050
1051 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1052 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1053 Intel Processor Trace format.
1054 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1055 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1056
1057 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1058 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1059 packet history.
1060
1061 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1062 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1063
1064 * Python/Guile scripting
1065
1066 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1067 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1068
1069 * New remote packets
1070
1071 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1072 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1073
1074 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1075 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1076
1077 Qbtrace:pt
1078 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1079 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1080 qSupported query.
1081
1082 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1083 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1084 Trace format.
1085
1086 swbreak stop reason
1087 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1088 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1089 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1090 mode operation.
1091
1092 hwbreak stop reason
1093 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1094 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1095
1096 vFile:fstat:
1097 Return information about files on the remote system.
1098
1099 qXfer:exec-file:read
1100 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1101 create a process running on the remote system.
1102
1103 vFile:setfs:
1104 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1105 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1106 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1107 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1108
1109 fork stop reason
1110 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1111
1112 vfork stop reason
1113 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1114
1115 vforkdone stop reason
1116 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1117 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1118
1119 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1120 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1121 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1122 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1123 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1124 whether these features are enabled.
1125
1126 * Extended-remote fork events
1127
1128 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1129 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1130 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1131 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1132
1133 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1134 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1135 the btrace record target.
1136 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1137
1138 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1139 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1140
1141 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1142 targets.
1143
1144 * Removed command line options
1145
1146 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1147
1148 * Removed targets and native configurations
1149
1150 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1151 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1152
1153 * New configure options
1154
1155 --with-intel-pt
1156 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1157 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1158
1159 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1160 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1161 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1162 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1163
1164 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1165
1166 * Python Scripting
1167
1168 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1169
1170 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1171
1172 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1173
1174 * Python Scripting
1175
1176 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1177 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1178 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1179 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1180 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1181 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1182 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1183 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1184 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1185 selecting a new file to debug.
1186 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1187 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1188
1189 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1190 inferior.
1191
1192 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1193 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1194 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1195 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1196
1197 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1198
1199 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1200 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1201 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1202 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1203
1204 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1205 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1206 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1207 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1208 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1209 interface with this new feature are:
1210
1211 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1212 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1213
1214 * New commands
1215
1216 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1217 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1218 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1219 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1220 as "maint demangler-warning".
1221
1222 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1223 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1224
1225 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1226 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1227 scripts.
1228
1229 maint print user-registers
1230 List all currently available "user" registers.
1231
1232 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1233 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1234 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1235
1236 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1237 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1238 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1239 provided.
1240
1241 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1242 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1243 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1244 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1245 at resume time.
1246
1247 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1248 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1249 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1250 switched threads meanwhile.
1251
1252 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1253
1254 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1255 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1256 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1257 is now the default mode.
1258
1259 * New options
1260
1261 set debug symbol-lookup
1262 show debug symbol-lookup
1263 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1264
1265 * MI changes
1266
1267 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1268 inferiors that have exited.
1269
1270 * New targets
1271
1272 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1273
1274 * Removed targets
1275
1276 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1277
1278 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1279 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1280 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1281 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1282 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1283
1284 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1285 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1286 its alias "share", instead.
1287
1288 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1289
1290 * New command line options
1291
1292 -D data-directory
1293 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1294
1295 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1296 as specified in ISO C99.
1297
1298 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1299 with or without disassembly.
1300
1301 * Guile scripting
1302
1303 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1304 available is determined at configure time.
1305 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1306 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1307
1308 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1309
1310 guile [code]
1311 gu [code]
1312 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1313
1314 guile-repl
1315 gr
1316 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1317
1318 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1319 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1320
1321 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1322 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1323
1324 * New options
1325
1326 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1327 show print symbol-loading
1328 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1329 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1330 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1331 becomes less useful.
1332
1333 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1334 show guile print-stack
1335 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1336
1337 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1338 show auto-load guile-scripts
1339 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1340
1341 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1342 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1343 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1344 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1345 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1346 usage of this option.
1347
1348 set auto-connect-native-target
1349
1350 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1351 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1352 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1353
1354 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1355 show record btrace replay-memory-access
1356 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1357
1358 maint set target-async (on|off)
1359 maint show target-async
1360 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1361 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1362 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1363 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1364
1365 set mi-async (on|off)
1366 show mi-async
1367 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1368 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1369
1370 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1371 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1372
1373 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1374 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1375 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1376 "set target-async on" command.
1377
1378 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1379
1380 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1381 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1382 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1383 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1384 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1385
1386 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1387 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1388 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1389
1390 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1391 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1392 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1393 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1394 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1395 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1396 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1397
1398 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1399 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1400
1401 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1402 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1403 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1404
1405 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1406 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1407 memory or registers.
1408
1409 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1410
1411 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1412 remote. It now works with all targets.
1413
1414 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1415 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1416 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1417 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1418 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1419 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1420 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1421 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1422 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1423 target-stack".
1424
1425 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1426 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1427 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1428
1429 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1430
1431 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1432 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1433 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1434
1435 * New remote packets
1436
1437 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1438 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1439 branch trace incrementally.
1440
1441 * Python Scripting
1442
1443 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1444 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1445 available.
1446 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1447 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1448 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1449 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1450 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
1451
1452 * New targets
1453 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1454
1455 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1456 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1457 its alias "share", instead.
1458
1459 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1460 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1461 instead.
1462
1463 * MI changes
1464
1465 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1466 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1467 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1468 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1469 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1470 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1471 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1472 commands and CLI execution commands.
1473
1474 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
1475
1476 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1477 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1478 recording has been added.
1479
1480 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1481
1482 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1483 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1484
1485 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1486 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1487 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1488 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1489 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1490 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1491 "void".
1492
1493 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1494
1495 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1496
1497 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1498 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1499 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1500 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1501
1502 (gdb) p $rax
1503 $1 = <not saved>
1504
1505 (gdb) info registers rax
1506 rax <not saved>
1507
1508 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1509 "*value not available*".
1510
1511 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1512 to binaries.
1513
1514 * Python scripting
1515
1516 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1517 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1518 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1519 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1520 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1521 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1522
1523 * New targets
1524
1525 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1526 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1527 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1528
1529 * Removed native configurations
1530
1531 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1532 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1533
1534 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1535 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1536 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1537 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1538 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1539 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1540 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1541
1542 * New commands:
1543 catch rethrow
1544 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1545 maint check-psymtabs
1546 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1547 maint check-symtabs
1548 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1549 maint expand-symtabs
1550 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1551
1552 show configuration
1553 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1554
1555 maint set|show per-command
1556 maint set|show per-command space
1557 maint set|show per-command time
1558 maint set|show per-command symtab
1559 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1560
1561 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1562 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1563 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1564 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1565 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1566
1567 info exceptions
1568 info exceptions REGEXP
1569 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1570 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1571 are listed.
1572
1573 * New options
1574
1575 set debug symfile off|on
1576 show debug symfile
1577 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1578 symbol tables within those files
1579
1580 set print raw frame-arguments
1581 show print raw frame-arguments
1582 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1583 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1584
1585 set remote trace-status-packet
1586 show remote trace-status-packet
1587 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1588
1589 set debug nios2
1590 show debug nios2
1591 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1592
1593 set range-stepping
1594 show range-stepping
1595 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1596
1597 set startup-with-shell
1598 show startup-with-shell
1599 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1600 directly.
1601
1602 set code-cache
1603 show code-cache
1604 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1605 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1606
1607 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1608 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1609 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1610 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1611 "set height 0".
1612
1613 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1614 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1615 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1616
1617 * New command-line options
1618 --configuration
1619 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1620
1621 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1622 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1623
1624 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1625 GDB command gcore.
1626
1627 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1628
1629 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1630 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1631
1632 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1633 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1634
1635 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1636 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1637 due to an uncaught signal.
1638
1639 * MI changes
1640
1641 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1642 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1643 command, which should contain "language-option".
1644
1645 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1646 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1647
1648 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1649 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1650 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1651 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1652 "undefined-command-error-code".
1653
1654 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1655 Trace Format now.
1656
1657 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1658
1659 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1660 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1661 are displayed.
1662
1663 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1664 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1665
1666 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1667 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1668 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1669
1670 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1671 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1672 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1673 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1674 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1675 "exec-run-start-option".
1676
1677 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1678 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1679
1680 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1681 the new "info exceptions" command.
1682
1683 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1684 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1685 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1686 ** ElinOS
1687 ** Wind River Linux
1688
1689 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1690 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1691 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1692 below.
1693
1694 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1695 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1696
1697 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1698 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1699 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1700
1701 * New remote packets
1702
1703 vCont;r
1704
1705 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1706 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1707 involvemement at each single-step.
1708
1709 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1710 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1711 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1712 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1713 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1714 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1715 speedup.
1716
1717 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1718
1719 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1720 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1721
1722 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1723 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1724 trace state variables.
1725
1726 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1727 target.
1728
1729 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1730 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1731
1732 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1733
1734 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1735 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1736 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1737 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1738
1739 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1740
1741 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1742 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1743 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1744 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1745
1746 set|show record full insn-number-max
1747 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1748 set|show record full memory-query
1749
1750 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1751 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1752 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1753 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1754 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1755
1756 record btrace
1757
1758 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1759 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1760
1761 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1762 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1763 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1764
1765 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1766 instruction granularity
1767
1768 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1769 function granularity
1770
1771 * New native configurations
1772
1773 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1774 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1775 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1776 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1777
1778 * New targets
1779
1780 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1781 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1782 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1783 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1784 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1785
1786 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1787 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1788 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1789 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1790 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1791 --data-directory command-line option.
1792
1793 * New command line options:
1794
1795 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1796 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1797
1798 * Removed command line options
1799
1800 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1801 Emacs.
1802
1803 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1804 type formatting.
1805
1806 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1807
1808 * Python scripting
1809
1810 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1811
1812 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1813
1814 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1815
1816 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1817
1818 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1819 of architecture in the Python API.
1820
1821 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1822 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1823
1824 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1825
1826 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1827 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1828 ** $_strlen(str)
1829 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1830
1831 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1832 given an argument.
1833
1834 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1835 default for GCC since November 2000.
1836
1837 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1838
1839 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1840 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1841
1842 * New configure options
1843
1844 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1845 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1846 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1847 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1848 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1849 options allow the user to override that default.
1850 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1851 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1852 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1853
1854 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1855
1856 catch signal
1857 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1858 conditions to be attached.
1859
1860 maint info bfds
1861 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1862
1863 python-interactive [command]
1864 pi [command]
1865 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1866 and print the result of expressions.
1867
1868 py [command]
1869 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1870
1871 enable type-printer [name]...
1872 disable type-printer [name]...
1873 Enable or disable type printers.
1874
1875 * Removed commands
1876
1877 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1878 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1879 instead.
1880
1881 * New options
1882
1883 set print type methods (on|off)
1884 show print type methods
1885 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1886 The default is to show them.
1887
1888 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1889 show print type typedefs
1890 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1891 The default is to show them.
1892
1893 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1894 show filename-display
1895 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1896 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1897
1898 set trace-buffer-size
1899 show trace-buffer-size
1900 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1901
1902 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1903 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1904 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1905
1906 set debug aarch64
1907 show debug aarch64
1908 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1909 The default is off.
1910
1911 set debug coff-pe-read
1912 show debug coff-pe-read
1913 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1914 exported symbols.
1915
1916 set debug mach-o
1917 show debug mach-o
1918 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1919 processing.
1920
1921 set debug notification
1922 show debug notification
1923 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1924
1925 * MI changes
1926
1927 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1928 "=cmd-param-changed".
1929 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1930 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1931 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1932 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1933 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1934 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1935 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1936 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1937 "=memory-changed".
1938 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1939 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1940 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1941 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1942 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1943 library load/unload events.
1944 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1945 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1946 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1947 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1948 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1949 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1950 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1951 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1952
1953 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1954 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1955 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1956 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1957
1958 * New remote packets
1959
1960 QTBuffer:size
1961 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1962 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1963
1964 Qbtrace:bts
1965 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1966 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1967 qSupported query.
1968
1969 Qbtrace:off
1970 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1971 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1972
1973 qXfer:btrace:read
1974 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1975 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1976
1977 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1978
1979 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1980 for more x32 ABI info.
1981
1982 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1983
1984 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1985
1986 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1987 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1988 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1989 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1990 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1991 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1992 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1993 "info os msg" lists message queues
1994 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1995
1996 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1997 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1998 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1999 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2000 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2001 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2002
2003 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2004 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2005 record/replay support.
2006
2007 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2008
2009 * Python scripting
2010
2011 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2012 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2013
2014 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2015
2016 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2017 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2018
2019 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2020
2021 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2022 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2023
2024 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2025 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2026 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2027 symbol's value.
2028
2029 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2030 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2031
2032 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2033 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2034 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2035
2036 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2037 object associated with a PC value.
2038
2039 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2040 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2041
2042 * Go language support.
2043 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2044 language.
2045
2046 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2047 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2048
2049 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2050 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2051
2052 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2053 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2054 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2055 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2056 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2057 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2058
2059 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2060 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2061 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2062 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2063
2064 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2065 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2066
2067 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2068 since December 2007.
2069
2070 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2071 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2072 command does. For instance:
2073
2074 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2075
2076 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2077 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2078 created, using the "condition" command.
2079
2080 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2081 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2082
2083 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2084
2085 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2086 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2087 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2088 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2089 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2090 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2091 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2092 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2093
2094 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2095 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2096 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2097 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2098 the .gdb_index section.
2099
2100 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2101
2102 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2103 target.
2104
2105 * MI changes
2106
2107 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2108
2109 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2110
2111 * New commands
2112
2113 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2114 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2115 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2116
2117 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2118 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2119
2120 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2121 several hits.
2122
2123 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2124 C++ and Java objects.
2125
2126 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2127 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2128 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2129 configured with '--with-python'.
2130
2131 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2132 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2133 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2134 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2135 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2136 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2137 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2138
2139 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2140 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2141 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2142 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2143
2144 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2145 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2146 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2147 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2148
2149 ** "set print symbol"
2150 "show print symbol"
2151 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2152 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2153 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2154
2155 * Deprecated commands
2156
2157 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2158 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2159
2160 * New targets
2161
2162 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2163 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2164
2165 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2166 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2167 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2168 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2169 evaluates to true.
2170
2171 * New options
2172
2173 set mips compression
2174 show mips compression
2175 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2176 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2177 mips16
2178 micromips
2179 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2180
2181 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2182 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2183 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2184 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2185 available mode.
2186 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2187 target.
2188
2189 set auto-load off
2190 Disable auto-loading globally.
2191
2192 show auto-load
2193 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2194
2195 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2196 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2197 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2198
2199 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2200 show auto-load python-scripts
2201 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2202
2203 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2204 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2205 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2206
2207 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2208 show auto-load libthread-db
2209 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2210
2211 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2212 show auto-load scripts-directory
2213 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2214 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2215 of the directories listed by this option.
2216 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2217
2218 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2219 show auto-load safe-path
2220 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2221 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2222
2223 set debug auto-load on|off
2224 show debug auto-load
2225 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2226
2227 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2228 show dprintf-style
2229 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2230 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2231 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2232 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2233
2234 set dprintf-function <expr>
2235 show dprintf-function
2236 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2237 show dprintf-channel
2238 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2239 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2240
2241 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2242 show disconnected-dprintf
2243 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2244 after GDB disconnects.
2245
2246 * New configure options
2247
2248 --with-auto-load-dir
2249 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2250 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2251 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2252 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2253 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2254
2255 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2256 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2257 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2258
2259 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2260 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2261 security feature.
2262
2263 * New remote packets
2264
2265 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2266
2267 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2268 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2269 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2270 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2271
2272 QProgramSignals:
2273
2274 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2275 program without GDB involvement.
2276
2277 * New command line options
2278
2279 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2280 before loading inferior.
2281 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2282 execute it before loading inferior.
2283
2284 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2285
2286 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2287 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2288 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2289 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2290 inferior changes.
2291
2292 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2293 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2294
2295 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2296 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2297 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2298 target hardware watchpoint.
2299
2300 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2301 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2302 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2303 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2304
2305 * Python scripting
2306
2307 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2308 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2309 existing one.
2310
2311 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2312 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2313 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2314 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2315 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2316 the stack trace.
2317
2318 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2319 Python API.
2320
2321 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2322 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2323 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2324 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2325 corresponding value.
2326
2327 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2328 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2329 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2330 on GDB start-up.
2331
2332 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2333 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2334 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2335 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2336
2337 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2338
2339 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2340 "gdb.breakpoints".
2341
2342 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2343 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2344 available in the CLI.
2345
2346 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2347 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2348 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2349 "some_type.items()".
2350
2351 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2352 new object file.
2353
2354 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2355 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2356 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2357 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2358 any anonymous fields.
2359
2360 * MI changes
2361
2362 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2363 "solib-event".
2364
2365 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2366 "=breakpoint-modified".
2367
2368 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2369
2370 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2371 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2372 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2373 lives.
2374
2375 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2376 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2377 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2378 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2379 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2380
2381 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2382 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2383
2384 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2385 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2386 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2387 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2388 use this option to specify where to find it.
2389
2390 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2391 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2392 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2393 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2394 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2395 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2396 section in the user manual for more details.
2397
2398 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2399 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2400 become available after that.
2401
2402 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2403
2404 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2405 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2406 gcc version 4.7.
2407
2408 * New commands
2409
2410 !SHELL COMMAND
2411 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2412 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2413
2414 * Changed commands
2415
2416 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2417 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2418 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2419
2420 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2421 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2422 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2423
2424 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2425 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2426 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2427 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2428 name starts with a hyphen.
2429
2430 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2431 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2432 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2433 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2434 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2435 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2436 number of bytes that will be collected.
2437
2438 tstart [NOTES]
2439 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2440 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2441 setting the variable trace-notes.
2442
2443 tstop [NOTES]
2444 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2445 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2446 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2447 trace-stop-notes.
2448
2449 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2450 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2451 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2452 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2453 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2454 is running.
2455
2456 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2457 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2458 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2459
2460 * New options
2461
2462 set debug dwarf2-read
2463 show debug dwarf2-read
2464 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2465 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2466
2467 set debug symtab-create
2468 show debug symtab-create
2469 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2470 creation. The default is off.
2471
2472 set extended-prompt
2473 show extended-prompt
2474 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2475 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2476 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2477 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2478 prompt is displayed.
2479
2480 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2481 show print entry-values
2482 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2483 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2484 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2485
2486 set debug entry-values
2487 show debug entry-values
2488 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2489 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2490
2491 set basenames-may-differ
2492 show basenames-may-differ
2493 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2494 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2495 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2496 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2497 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2498 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2499 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2500 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2501
2502 set trace-user
2503 show trace-user
2504 set trace-notes
2505 show trace-notes
2506 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2507 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2508 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2509 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2510
2511 set trace-stop-notes
2512 show trace-stop-notes
2513 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2514 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2515 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2516 started by someone else.
2517
2518 * New remote packets
2519
2520 QTEnable
2521
2522 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2523
2524 QTDisable
2525
2526 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2527
2528 QTNotes
2529
2530 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2531
2532 qTP
2533
2534 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2535
2536 qTMinFTPILen
2537
2538 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2539 be placed.
2540
2541 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2542 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2543
2544 * New targets
2545
2546 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2547
2548 * New Simulators
2549
2550 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2551
2552 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2553
2554 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2555
2556 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2557
2558 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2559 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2560 matches the given regular expression.
2561
2562 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2563
2564 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2565 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2566
2567 * New command line options
2568
2569 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2570 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2571
2572 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2573 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2574
2575 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2576 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2577 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2578
2579 * GDB now understands thread names.
2580
2581 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2582 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2583
2584 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2585 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2586
2587 * OpenCL C
2588 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2589 has been integrated into GDB.
2590
2591 * Python scripting
2592
2593 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2594 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2595 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2596
2597 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2598 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2599 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2600 and allows for more dynamic content.
2601
2602 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2603 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2604 have an is_valid method.
2605
2606 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2607 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2608 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2609
2610 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2611
2612 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2613 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2614 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2615 that function like so:
2616
2617 result = some_value (10,20)
2618
2619 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2620 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2621 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2622
2623 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2624 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2625 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2626 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2627 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2628
2629 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2630 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2631
2632 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2633
2634 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2635 selected thread.
2636
2637 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2638 holds the thread's name.
2639
2640 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2641 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2642 occurring in the process being debugged.
2643 The following events are currently supported:
2644 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2645 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2646 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2647
2648 * C++ Improvements:
2649
2650 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2651 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2652
2653 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2654
2655 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2656 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2657 was added to GCC 4.5.
2658
2659 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2660 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2661 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2662 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2663 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2664 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2665
2666 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2667 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2668 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2669 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2670 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2671
2672 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2673 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2674 execution to a label.
2675
2676 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2677 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2678 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2679 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2680
2681 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2682 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2683 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2684 of scope.
2685
2686 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2687
2688 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2689 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2690 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2691 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2692 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2693 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2694
2695 (gdb) info threads
2696 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2697
2698 While now you see this:
2699
2700 (gdb) info threads
2701 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2702
2703 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2704 dumps.
2705
2706 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2707 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2708 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2709 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2710
2711 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2712 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2713 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2714 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2715 section in the user manual for more details.
2716
2717 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2718
2719 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2720 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2721
2722 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2723
2724 * New native configurations
2725
2726 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2727
2728 * New targets:
2729
2730 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2731
2732 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2733 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2734 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2735 in the GDB user manual.
2736
2737 * Guile support was removed.
2738
2739 * New features in the GNU simulator
2740
2741 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2742
2743 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2744
2745 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2746
2747 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2748
2749 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2750 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2751 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2752 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2753 was always disabled for such configurations.
2754
2755 * C++ Improvements:
2756
2757 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2758
2759 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2760 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2761 For example:
2762 namespace A
2763 {
2764 class B { };
2765 void foo (B) { }
2766 }
2767 ...
2768 A::B b
2769 foo(b)
2770 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2771 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2772 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2773
2774 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2775
2776 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2777 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2778 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2779 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2780 entry.
2781 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2782 mentioned flavors of operators.
2783
2784 ** static const class members
2785
2786 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2787 class definition has been fixed.
2788
2789 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2790
2791 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2792 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2793 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2794 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2795 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2796 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2797
2798 * Static tracepoints
2799
2800 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2801 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2802 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2803 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2804 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2805 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2806 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2807 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2808 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2809 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2810 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2811 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2812 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2813 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2814 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2815 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2816 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2817 the "New remote packets" section below.
2818
2819 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2820
2821 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2822 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2823 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2824 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2825
2826 * Observer mode
2827
2828 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2829 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2830 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2831 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2832 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2833 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2834 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2835
2836 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2837 current thread.
2838
2839 * New remote packets
2840
2841 qGetTIBAddr
2842
2843 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2844
2845 qRelocInsn
2846
2847 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2848 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2849 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2850 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2851 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2852 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2853
2854 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2855
2856 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2857
2858 qTSTMat
2859
2860 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2861 program.
2862
2863 qXfer:statictrace:read
2864
2865 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2866 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2867 to gdb's qSupported query.
2868
2869 QAllow
2870
2871 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2872
2873 QTDPsrc
2874
2875 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2876 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2877
2878 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2879 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2880 a directory.
2881
2882 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2883
2884 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2885 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2886 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2887 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2888
2889 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2890 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2891 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2892 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2893 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2894 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2895 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2896
2897 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2898 for static tracepoints support.
2899
2900 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2901
2902 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2903 it understands register description.
2904
2905 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2906
2907 * X86 general purpose registers
2908
2909 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2910 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2911 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2912 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2913 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2914
2915 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2916 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2917 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2918 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2919 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2920 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2921
2922 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2923 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2924 in the specified file.
2925
2926 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2927 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2928 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2929 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2930 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2931 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2932 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2933 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2934 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2935 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2936
2937 * New commands
2938
2939 eval template, expressions...
2940 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2941 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2942
2943 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2944 show target-file-system-kind
2945 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2946 names.
2947
2948 save breakpoints <filename>
2949 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2950 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2951 definitions, use the `source' command.
2952
2953 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2954 is now deprecated.
2955
2956 info static-tracepoint-markers
2957 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2958
2959 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2960 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2961 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2962
2963 set observer on|off
2964 show observer
2965 Enable and disable observer mode.
2966
2967 set may-write-registers on|off
2968 set may-write-memory on|off
2969 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2970 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2971 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2972 set may-interrupt on|off
2973 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2974 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2975 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2976 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2977 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2978 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2979 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2980
2981 set record memory-query on|off
2982 show record memory-query
2983 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2984 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2985
2986 * Changed commands
2987
2988 disassemble
2989 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2990
2991 * Python scripting
2992
2993 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2994 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2995 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2996 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2997 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2998
2999 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3000 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3001 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3002 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3003
3004 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3005 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3006
3007 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3008
3009 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3010
3011 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3012
3013 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3014 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3015 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3016
3017 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3018 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3019 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3020 regular breakpoints.
3021
3022 * New targets
3023
3024 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3025
3026 * D language support.
3027 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3028 language.
3029
3030 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3031 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3032 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3033 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3034 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3035
3036 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3037 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3038 conditions of the form:
3039
3040 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3041
3042 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3043 interface mentioned above.
3044
3045 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3046
3047 * C++ Improvements
3048
3049 ** Namespace Support
3050
3051 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3052 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3053 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3054 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3055 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3056
3057 ** Bug Fixes
3058
3059 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3060 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3061 qualified name.
3062
3063 ** Cast Operators
3064
3065 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3066 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3067
3068 * New targets
3069
3070 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3071 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3072
3073 * New Simulators
3074
3075 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3076 Renesas RX rx
3077
3078 * Multi-program debugging.
3079
3080 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3081 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3082 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3083 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3084 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3085 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3086 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3087 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3088
3089 * New tracing features
3090
3091 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3092
3093 ** Trace state variables
3094
3095 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3096 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3097 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3098 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3099 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3100 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3101 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3102 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3103 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3104 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3105
3106 ** Fast tracepoints
3107
3108 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3109 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3110 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3111 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3112 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3113 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3114 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3115 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3116 the regular trace command.
3117
3118 ** Disconnected tracing
3119
3120 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3121 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3122 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3123 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3124 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3125
3126 ** Trace files
3127
3128 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3129 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3130 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3131 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3132 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3133 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3134 <name>".
3135
3136 ** Circular trace buffer
3137
3138 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3139 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3140 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3141 not be available for all target agents.
3142
3143 * Changed commands
3144
3145 disassemble
3146 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3147 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3148
3149 info variables
3150 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3151 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3152
3153 source
3154 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3155 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3156 support.
3157
3158 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3159 "set script-extension" (see below).
3160
3161 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3162
3163 record save [<FILENAME>]
3164 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3165 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3166
3167 record restore <FILENAME>
3168 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3169 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3170
3171 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3172 Add a new inferior.
3173
3174 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3175 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3176 inferior has loaded.
3177
3178 remove-inferior ID
3179 Remove an inferior.
3180
3181 maint info program-spaces
3182 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3183
3184 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3185 show remote interrupt-sequence
3186 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3187 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3188 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3189 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3190 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3191
3192 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3193 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3194 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3195 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3196 Linux kernel.
3197
3198 set remotebreak [on | off]
3199 show remotebreak
3200 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3201
3202 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3203 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3204
3205 info tvariables
3206 List trace state variables and their values.
3207
3208 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3209 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3210
3211 teval EXPR, ...
3212 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3213 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3214
3215 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3216 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3217
3218 * New expression syntax
3219
3220 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3221 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3222
3223 * New options
3224
3225 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3226 show follow-exec-mode
3227 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3228 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3229 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3230
3231 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3232 show default-collect
3233 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3234 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3235 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3236
3237 set disconnected-tracing
3238 show disconnected-tracing
3239 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3240 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3241 upon disconnection.
3242
3243 set circular-trace-buffer
3244 show circular-trace-buffer
3245 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3246 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3247 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3248 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3249
3250 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3251 show script-extension
3252 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3253 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3254 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3255 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3256 evaluation failed.
3257 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3258
3259 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3260 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3261 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3262 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3263 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3264 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3265 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3266 is on.
3267
3268 * Python API Improvements
3269
3270 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3271 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3272 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3273
3274 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3275 `is_base_class' attribute.
3276
3277 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3278
3279 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3280 evaluate an expression.
3281
3282 * New remote packets
3283
3284 QTDV
3285 Define a trace state variable.
3286
3287 qTV
3288 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3289
3290 QTDisconnected
3291 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3292
3293 QTBuffer:circular
3294 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3295
3296 qTfP, qTsP
3297 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3298
3299 * Bug fixes
3300
3301 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3302
3303 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3304 much more reliable. In particular:
3305 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3306 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3307 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3308 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3309 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3310 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3311 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3312 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3313 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3314 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3315 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3316 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3317 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3318 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3319 non-threaded programs.
3320
3321 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3322 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3323 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3324 executable program.
3325
3326 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
3327
3328 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3329 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3330 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3331 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3332 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3333
3334 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3335 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3336 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3337 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3338 for tracepoint actions.
3339
3340 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3341 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3342 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
3343
3344 * Process record and replay
3345
3346 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3347 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3348 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3349 execute commands.
3350
3351 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3352 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3353 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3354 reverse execution.
3355
3356 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3357 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3358 2.6.28 or later.
3359
3360 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3361 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3362 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3363 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3364 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3365 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3366 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3367 the installation instructions for more information.
3368
3369 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3370 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3371 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3372 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3373
3374 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3375 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3376
3377 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3378 now complete on file names.
3379
3380 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3381 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3382 For instance, consider:
3383
3384 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3385 # struct example variable;
3386 (gdb) p variable.
3387
3388 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3389 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3390
3391 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3392 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3393
3394 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3395 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3396 macros.
3397
3398 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3399 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3400 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3401
3402 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3403 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3404 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3405 and simulator targets may also provide them.
3406
3407 * New remote packets
3408
3409 qSearch:memory:
3410 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3411
3412 QStartNoAckMode
3413 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3414 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3415 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3416
3417 vKill
3418 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3419 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3420
3421 qXfer:osdata:read
3422 Obtains additional operating system information
3423
3424 qXfer:siginfo:read
3425 qXfer:siginfo:write
3426 Read or write additional signal information.
3427
3428 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3429
3430 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3431 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3432 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3433
3434 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3435 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3436
3437 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3438 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3439 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
3440
3441 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3442 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3443
3444 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3445
3446 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3447
3448 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3449 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3450
3451 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
3452 list of section offsets.
3453
3454 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3455 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3456 have also been fixed.
3457
3458 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3459 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3460 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3461
3462 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3463 example, given:
3464
3465 template<typename T> class C { };
3466 C<char const *> c;
3467
3468 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3469
3470 ptype C<char const *>
3471 ptype C<char const*>
3472 ptype C<const char *>
3473 ptype C<const char*>
3474
3475 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3476
3477 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3478 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3479
3480 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3481 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3482 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3483
3484 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3485 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3486
3487 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3488 gdbserver.
3489
3490 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3491 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3492
3493 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3494 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3495 as appropriate.
3496
3497 * Python scripting
3498
3499 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3500 available is determined at configure time.
3501
3502 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3503
3504 * Ada tasking support
3505
3506 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3507 been introduced:
3508
3509 info tasks
3510 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3511 info task N
3512 Print detailed information about task number N.
3513 task
3514 Print the task number of the current task.
3515 task N
3516 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3517
3518 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3519 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3520
3521 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3522
3523 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3524 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3525 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3526 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3527 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3528 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3529 below.
3530
3531 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3532 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3533 information.
3534
3535 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3536 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3537 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3538 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3539 more information.
3540
3541 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3542
3543 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3544 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3545 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3546 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3547 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3548
3549 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3550 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3551 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3552 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3553 --enable-targets configure option.
3554
3555 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3556
3557 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3558 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3559 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3560 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3561 section in the user manual for more information.
3562
3563 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3564 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3565 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3566 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3567 extensions on linux targets.
3568
3569 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3570
3571 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3572 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3573 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3574 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3575 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3576 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3577 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3578 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3579 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3580
3581 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3582 val1 [, val2, ...]
3583 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3584
3585 maint set python print-stack
3586 maint show python print-stack
3587 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3588
3589 python [CODE]
3590 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3591
3592 macro define
3593 macro list
3594 macro undef
3595 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3596 interactively.
3597
3598 info os processes
3599 Show operating system information about processes.
3600
3601 info inferiors
3602 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3603
3604 inferior NUM
3605 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3606
3607 detach inferior NUM
3608 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3609
3610 kill inferior NUM
3611 Kill inferior number NUM.
3612
3613 * New options
3614
3615 set spu stop-on-load
3616 show spu stop-on-load
3617 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3618
3619 set spu auto-flush-cache
3620 show spu auto-flush-cache
3621 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3622 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3623
3624 set sh calling-convention
3625 show sh calling-convention
3626 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3627
3628 set debug timestamp
3629 show debug timestamp
3630 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3631
3632 set disassemble-next-line
3633 show disassemble-next-line
3634 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3635 the debuggee stops.
3636
3637 set remote noack-packet
3638 show remote noack-packet
3639 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3640 under "New remote packets."
3641
3642 set remote query-attached-packet
3643 show remote query-attached-packet
3644 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3645
3646 set remote read-siginfo-object
3647 show remote read-siginfo-object
3648 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3649 packet.
3650
3651 set remote write-siginfo-object
3652 show remote write-siginfo-object
3653 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3654 packet.
3655
3656 set remote reverse-continue
3657 show remote reverse-continue
3658 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3659
3660 set remote reverse-step
3661 show remote reverse-step
3662 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3663
3664 set displaced-stepping
3665 show displaced-stepping
3666 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3667 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3668 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3669
3670 set debug displaced
3671 show debug displaced
3672 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3673
3674 maint set internal-error
3675 maint show internal-error
3676 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3677
3678 maint set internal-warning
3679 maint show internal-warning
3680 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3681
3682 set exec-wrapper
3683 show exec-wrapper
3684 unset exec-wrapper
3685 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3686
3687 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3688 show multiple-symbols
3689 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3690 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3691 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3692
3693 set breakpoint always-inserted
3694 show breakpoint always-inserted
3695 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3696 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3697 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3698
3699 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3700 show arm fallback-mode
3701 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3702 show arm force-mode
3703 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3704 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3705 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3706 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3707
3708 set disable-randomization
3709 show disable-randomization
3710 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3711 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3712 multiple debugging sessions.
3713
3714 set non-stop
3715 show non-stop
3716 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3717 a breakpoint.
3718
3719 set target-async
3720 show target-async
3721 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3722 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3723 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3724 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3725
3726 set target-wide-charset
3727 show target-wide-charset
3728 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3729 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3730
3731 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3732 show tcp auto-retry
3733 set tcp connect-timeout
3734 show tcp connect-timeout
3735 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3736 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3737 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3738
3739 set libthread-db-search-path
3740 show libthread-db-search-path
3741 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3742 libthread_db.
3743
3744 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3745 show schedule-multiple
3746 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3747 the current process.
3748
3749 set stack-cache
3750 show stack-cache
3751 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3752 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3753 affecting correctness.
3754
3755 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3756 show interactive-mode
3757 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3758 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3759 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3760 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3761 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3762
3763 * Removed commands
3764
3765 info forks
3766 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3767 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3768 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3769 command.
3770
3771 fork NUM
3772 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3773 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3774 alias for the `fork' command.
3775
3776 process PID
3777 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3778 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3779 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3780
3781 delete fork NUM
3782 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3783 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3784 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3785 fork' command.
3786
3787 detach fork NUM
3788 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3789 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3790 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3791 fork' command.
3792
3793 * New native configurations
3794
3795 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3796
3797 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3798
3799 * New targets
3800
3801 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3802 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3803 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3804 S+core 3 score-*-*
3805
3806 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3807 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3808
3809 * Removed commands
3810
3811 catch load
3812 catch unload
3813 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3814
3815 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3816
3817 * New native configurations
3818
3819 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3820 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3821
3822 * New targets
3823
3824 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3825 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3826
3827 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3828
3829 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3830 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3831 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3832 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3833
3834 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3835 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3836
3837 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3838 is resolved.
3839
3840 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3841 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3842 and in inlined functions.
3843
3844 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3845 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3846 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3847
3848 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3849
3850 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3851 registers on PowerPC targets.
3852
3853 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3854 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3855
3856 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3857 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3858
3859 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3860 extended-remote mode.
3861
3862 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3863 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3864 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3865 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3866
3867 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3868 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3869 target architectures.
3870
3871 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3872 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3873 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3874 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3875
3876 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3877 breakpoints now.
3878
3879 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3880 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3881 include:
3882 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3883 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3884 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3885 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3886 of an assignment
3887 - Improved command completion in Ada
3888 - Several bug fixes
3889
3890 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3891 process.
3892
3893 * New commands
3894
3895 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3896 show print frame-arguments
3897 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3898 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3899
3900 remote put
3901 remote get
3902 remote delete
3903 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3904
3905 * New MI commands
3906
3907 -target-file-put
3908 -target-file-get
3909 -target-file-delete
3910 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3911
3912 * New remote packets
3913
3914 vFile:open:
3915 vFile:close:
3916 vFile:pread:
3917 vFile:pwrite:
3918 vFile:unlink:
3919 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3920
3921 vAttach
3922 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3923 mode.
3924
3925 vRun
3926 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3927
3928 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3929
3930 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3931 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3932 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3933
3934 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3935 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3936 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3937
3938 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3939 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3940 is not supported.
3941
3942 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3943 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3944
3945 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3946 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3947
3948 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3949
3950 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3951 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3952 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3953
3954 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3955 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3956
3957 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3958 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3959 as strings.
3960
3961 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3962 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3963 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3964
3965 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3966 iWMMXt coprocessor.
3967
3968 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3969 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3970 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3971
3972 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3973
3974 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3975
3976 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3977 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3978 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3979
3980 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3981 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3982
3983 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3984 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3985 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3986 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3987 Windows and SymbianOS).
3988
3989 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3990 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3991
3992 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3993 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3994
3995 * New commands
3996
3997 set remoteflow
3998 show remoteflow
3999 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4000 when debugging using remote targets.
4001
4002 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4003 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4004 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4005 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4006 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4007 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4008 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4009
4010 set breakpoint auto-hw
4011 show breakpoint auto-hw
4012 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4013 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4014 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4015 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4016 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4017 including "next" and "finish".
4018
4019 catch exception
4020 catch exception unhandled
4021 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4022
4023 catch assert
4024 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4025
4026 set sysroot
4027 show sysroot
4028 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4029 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4030 an alias to "set sysroot".
4031
4032 info spu
4033 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4034 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4035 architecture.
4036
4037 * New native configurations
4038
4039 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4040
4041 set tdesc filename
4042 unset tdesc filename
4043 show tdesc filename
4044 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4045 not query the target for its built-in description.
4046
4047 * New targets
4048
4049 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4050 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4051 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4052
4053 * New remote packets
4054
4055 QPassSignals:
4056 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4057 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4058
4059 qXfer:features:read:
4060 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4061 features.
4062
4063 qXfer:spu:read:
4064 qXfer:spu:write:
4065 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4066 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4067
4068 qXfer:libraries:read:
4069 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4070 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4071 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4072 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4073
4074 * Removed targets
4075
4076 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4077
4078 alpha*-*-osf1*
4079 alpha*-*-osf2*
4080 d10v-*-*
4081 hppa*-*-hiux*
4082 i[34567]86-ncr-*
4083 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4084 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4085 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4086 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4087 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4088 i[34567]86-*-sco*
4089 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4090 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4091 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4092 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4093 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4094 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4095 i[34567]86-*-isc*
4096 m68*-cisco*-*
4097 m68*-tandem-*
4098 mips*-*-pe
4099 rs6000-*-lynxos*
4100 sh*-*-pe
4101
4102 * Other removed features
4103
4104 target abug
4105 target cpu32bug
4106 target est
4107 target rom68k
4108
4109 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4110
4111 target hms
4112 target e7000
4113 target sh3
4114 target sh3e
4115
4116 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4117 H8/300.
4118
4119 target ocd
4120
4121 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4122 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4123 interfaces.
4124
4125 DWARF 1 support
4126
4127 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4128 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4129
4130 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4131
4132 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4133 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4134 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4135 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4136
4137 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4138
4139 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4140 in debugging information.
4141
4142 Scheme support
4143
4144 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4145 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4146
4147 set mips stack-arg-size
4148 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4149
4150 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4151
4152 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4153
4154 * New targets
4155
4156 Xtensa xtensa-elf
4157 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4158
4159 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4160 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4161 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4162
4163 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4164 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4165 supported.
4166
4167 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4168 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4169
4170 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4171 stub provides the required support.
4172
4173 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4174 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4175
4176 * New commands
4177
4178 set substitute-path
4179 unset substitute-path
4180 show substitute-path
4181 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4182 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4183 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4184 between compilation and debugging.
4185
4186 set trace-commands
4187 show trace-commands
4188 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4189 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4190 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4191
4192 * REMOVED features
4193
4194 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4195
4196 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4197 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4198
4199 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4200
4201 * New remote packets
4202
4203 qSupported:
4204 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4205 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4206 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4207 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4208 target.
4209
4210 qXfer:auxv:read:
4211 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4212 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4213
4214 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4215 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4216 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4217
4218 vFlashErase:
4219 vFlashWrite:
4220 vFlashDone:
4221 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4222
4223 * Removed remote packets
4224
4225 qPart:auxv:read:
4226 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4227 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4228
4229 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4230
4231 * New targets
4232
4233 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4234
4235 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4236
4237 * New commands
4238
4239 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4240 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4241
4242 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4243
4244 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4245
4246 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4247 previously saved state.
4248
4249 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4250
4251 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4252
4253 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4254 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4255
4256 info forks List forks of the user program that
4257 are available to be debugged.
4258
4259 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4260 forks of the user program that are
4261 available to be debugged.
4262
4263 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4264 that are available to be debugged (and
4265 kill the forked process).
4266
4267 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4268 that are available to be debugged (and
4269 allow the process to continue).
4270
4271 * New architecture
4272
4273 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4274
4275 * Improved Windows host support
4276
4277 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4278 native console support, and remote communications using either
4279 network sockets or serial ports.
4280
4281 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4282
4283 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4284 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4285 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4286 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4287 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4288 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4289
4290 * REMOVED features
4291
4292 The ARM rdi-share module.
4293
4294 The Netware NLM debug server.
4295
4296 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4297
4298 * New native configurations
4299
4300 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4301 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4302
4303 * New targets
4304
4305 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4306
4307 * New command line options
4308
4309 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4310 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4311 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4312 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4313 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4314 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4315 with the --command (-x) option.
4316
4317 * Deprecated commands removed
4318
4319 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4320 removed:
4321
4322 Command Replacement
4323 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4324 othernames set arm disassembler
4325 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4326 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4327 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4328 regs info registers
4329
4330 * New BSD user-level threads support
4331
4332 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4333 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4334 configurations are:
4335
4336 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4337 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4338 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4339
4340 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4341 are not yet supported.
4342
4343 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4344 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4345
4346 * REMOVED configurations and files
4347
4348 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4349 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4350 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4351
4352 * New "set print array-indexes" command
4353
4354 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4355 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4356 behavior.
4357
4358 * VAX floating point support
4359
4360 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4361
4362 * User-defined command support
4363
4364 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4365 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4366 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4367
4368 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4369
4370 * New command line option
4371
4372 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4373 debugging.
4374
4375 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4376
4377 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4378 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4379 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4380 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4381 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4382
4383 * Internationalization
4384
4385 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4386 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4387 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4388
4389 * Ada
4390
4391 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4392 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4393 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4394
4395 * New native configurations
4396
4397 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4398
4399 * Remote 'p' packet
4400
4401 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4402 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4403
4404 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4405
4406 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4407 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4408 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4409 i386 application).
4410
4411 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4412 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4413 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4414 configurations:
4415
4416 hppa-*-hpux
4417 ia64-*-aix
4418 mips-*-irix*
4419 *-*-lynx
4420 mips-*-linux-gnu
4421 sds protocol
4422 xdr protocol
4423 powerpc bdm protocol
4424
4425 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4426 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4427
4428 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4429
4430 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4431 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4432 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4433 permanently REMOVED.
4434
4435 h8300-*-*
4436 mcore-*-*
4437 mn10300-*-*
4438 ns32k-*-*
4439 sh64-*-*
4440 v850-*-*
4441
4442 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4443
4444 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4445
4446 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4447 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4448 been fixed.
4449
4450 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4451
4452 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4453 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4454 IRIX long double values).
4455
4456 * VAX and "next"
4457
4458 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4459 command. This problem has been fixed.
4460
4461 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4462
4463 * Fix for ``many threads''
4464
4465 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4466 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4467 error message:
4468
4469 ptrace: No such process.
4470 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4471
4472 This problem has been fixed.
4473
4474 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4475
4476 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4477 GDB to dump core).
4478
4479 * New ``start'' command.
4480
4481 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4482
4483 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4484
4485 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4486 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4487 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4488
4489 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4490 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4491 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4492 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4493 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4494 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4495 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4496 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4497 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4498
4499 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
4500
4501 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4502 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4503 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4504 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4505 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4506
4507 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4508 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4509 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4510
4511 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4512
4513 * New native configurations
4514
4515 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4516 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4517 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4518 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4519 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4520 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4521 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4522
4523 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4524
4525 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4526 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4527 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4528 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4529 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4530 work, was also included.
4531
4532 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4533 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4534
4535 h8300-*-*
4536 mcore-*-*
4537 mn10300-*-*
4538 ns32k-*-*
4539 sh64-*-*
4540 v850-*-*
4541 xstormy16-*-*
4542
4543 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4544 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4545
4546 * REMOVED configurations and files
4547
4548 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4549 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4550 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4551 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4552 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4553 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4554 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4555 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4556 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4557 sonymips mips-sony-*
4558 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4559
4560 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4561
4562 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4563
4564 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4565 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4566 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4567 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4568 with GDB".
4569
4570 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4571
4572 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4573 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4574 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4575 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4576 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4577 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4578 are created.
4579
4580 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4581
4582 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4583
4584 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4585 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4586 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4587
4588 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4589
4590 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4591 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4592
4593 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4594
4595 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4596 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4597 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4598
4599 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4600
4601 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4602 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4603
4604 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4605
4606 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4607 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4608 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4609
4610 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4611
4612 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4613 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4614 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4615
4616 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4617
4618 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4619
4620 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4621 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4622
4623 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4624
4625 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4626 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4627 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4628 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4629
4630 * Revised SPARC target
4631
4632 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4633 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4634 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4635 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4636 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4637
4638 * New C++ demangler
4639
4640 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4641 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4642 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4643 programs.
4644
4645 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4646
4647 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4648 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4649 encountered these.
4650
4651 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4652
4653 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4654 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4655 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4656 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4657 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4658 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4659 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4660 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4661 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4662
4663 * New native configurations
4664
4665 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4666 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4667 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4668 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4669 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4670
4671 * New debugging protocols
4672
4673 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4674
4675 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4676
4677 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4678 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4679 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4680
4681 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4682
4683 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4684 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4685 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4686 permanently REMOVED.
4687
4688 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4689 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4690 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4691 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4692 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4693 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4694 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4695 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4696 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4697 sonymips mips-sony-*
4698 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4699
4700 * REMOVED configurations and files
4701
4702 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4703 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4704 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4705 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4706 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4707 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4708 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4709 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4710 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4711 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4712 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4713 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4714 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4715 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4716 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4717 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4718 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4719
4720 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4721
4722 * Objective-C
4723
4724 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4725 integrated into GDB.
4726
4727 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4728
4729 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4730 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4731 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4732 backtraces.
4733
4734 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4735 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4736 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4737
4738 * Hosted file I/O.
4739
4740 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4741 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4742 remote protocol documentation for details.
4743
4744 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4745
4746 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4747 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4748 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4749 ppc32 on ppc64).
4750
4751 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4752
4753 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4754 per-thread variables.
4755
4756 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4757
4758 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4759 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4760
4761 * Separate debug info.
4762
4763 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4764 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4765 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4766 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4767 and optional debug files.
4768
4769 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4770
4771 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4772 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4773 debugger.
4774
4775 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4776 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4777
4778 * Java
4779
4780 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4781 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4782 considered "useable".
4783
4784 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4785
4786 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4787 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4788 kernel.
4789
4790 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4791
4792 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4793 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4794
4795 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4796
4797 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4798 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4799 command.
4800
4801 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4802
4803 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4804 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4805
4806 * Profiling support
4807
4808 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4809 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4810 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4811 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4812 data, for more informative profiling results.
4813
4814 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4815
4816 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4817 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4818 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4819
4820 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4821 removed.
4822
4823 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4824 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4825 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4826 in a subsequent -var-update.
4827
4828 * New native configurations.
4829
4830 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4831
4832 * Multi-arched targets.
4833
4834 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4835 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4836
4837 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4838
4839 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4840 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4841 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4842 permanently REMOVED.
4843
4844 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4845 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4846 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4847 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4848 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4849 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4850 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4851 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4852 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4853 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4854 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4855 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4856
4857 * REMOVED configurations and files
4858
4859 V850EA ISA
4860 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4861 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4862 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4863 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4864 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4865 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4866 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4867 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4868 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4869 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4870 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4871 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4872 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4873
4874 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4875
4876 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4877 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4878 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4879 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4880 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4881
4882 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4883
4884 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4885
4886 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4887 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4888 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4889 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4890 shared libs like mad''.
4891
4892 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4893
4894 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4895 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4896 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4897 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4898
4899 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4900
4901 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4902 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4903 they expand.
4904
4905 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4906 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4907
4908 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4909 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4910
4911 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4912 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4913 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4914 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4915
4916 * Multi-arched targets.
4917
4918 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4919 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4920 NEC V850 v850-*-*
4921 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4922 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4923 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4924
4925 * New targets.
4926
4927 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4928
4929
4930 * New native configurations
4931
4932 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4933 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4934 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4935 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4936
4937 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4938
4939 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4940 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4941 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4942 permanently REMOVED.
4943
4944 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4945 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4946 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4947 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4948 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4949 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4950 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4951 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4952 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4953 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4954 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4955 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4956 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4957
4958 * OBSOLETE languages
4959
4960 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4961
4962 * REMOVED configurations and files
4963
4964 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4965 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4966 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4967 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4968 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4969
4970 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4971
4972 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4973
4974 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4975 commands. The default is 1024.
4976
4977 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4978
4979 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4980
4981 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4982
4983 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4984 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4985 from a file into memory (restore).
4986
4987 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4988
4989 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4990 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4991 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4992
4993 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4994
4995 * New targets.
4996
4997 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
4998
4999 * Bug fixes
5000
5001 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5002 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5003 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5004
5005 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5006 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5007 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5008
5009 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5010 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5011 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5012
5013 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5014 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5015 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5016
5017 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5018
5019 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5020
5021 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5022 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5023 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5024 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5025 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5026 (notably embedded) targets.
5027
5028 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5029
5030 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5031 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5032 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5033 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5034
5035 * New command line option
5036
5037 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5038
5039 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5040
5041 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5042 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5043 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5044 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5045 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5046 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5047 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5048 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5049 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5050 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5051
5052 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5053
5054 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5055 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5056
5057 * New native configurations
5058
5059 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5060 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5061 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5062 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5063
5064 * New targets
5065
5066 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5067
5068 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5069
5070 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5071 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5072 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5073 permanently REMOVED.
5074
5075 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5076 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5077 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5078 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5079 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5080
5081 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5082
5083 * REMOVED configurations and files
5084
5085 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5086 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5087 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5088 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5089 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5090 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5091 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5092 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5093 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5094 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5095 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5096 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5097 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5098
5099 * Changes to command line processing
5100
5101 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5102 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5103
5104 * Changes to key bindings
5105
5106 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5107
5108 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5109
5110 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5111
5112 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5113 corrupted.
5114
5115 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5116
5117 Numerous documentation fixes.
5118
5119 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5120
5121 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5122
5123 * New native configurations
5124
5125 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5126 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5127 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5128 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5129 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5130 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5131
5132 * New targets
5133
5134 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5135 CRIS cris-axis
5136 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5137
5138 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5139
5140 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5141 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5142 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5143 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5144 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5145 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5146 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5147 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5148 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5149 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5150 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5151 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5152 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5153 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5154
5155 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5156 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5157
5158 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5159 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5160 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5161 permanently REMOVED.
5162
5163 * REMOVED configurations and files
5164
5165 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5166 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5167 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5168 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5169 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5170 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5171
5172 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5173
5174 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5175 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5176 present.
5177
5178 * Other news:
5179
5180 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5181
5182 * The MI enabled by default.
5183
5184 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5185 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5186 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5187 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5188 which is now deprecated.
5189
5190 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5191
5192 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5193 main features are supported:
5194
5195 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5196
5197 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5198 extension;
5199
5200 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5201
5202 - a Pascal expression parser.
5203
5204 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5205
5206 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5207
5208 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5209
5210 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5211 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5212
5213 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5214
5215 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5216
5217 * Changes in completion.
5218
5219 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5220 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5221 users expect at the shell prompt.
5222
5223 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5224 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5225 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5226 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5227 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5228 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5229 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5230
5231 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5232
5233 * New platform-independent commands:
5234
5235 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5236 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5237 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5238
5239 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5240
5241 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5242 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5243 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5244
5245 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5246
5247 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5248 multi-threaded programs though.
5249
5250 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5251
5252 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5253
5254 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5255 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5256 supported.)
5257
5258 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5259
5260 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5261 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5262 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5263 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5264 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5265 registers.
5266
5267 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5268 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5269 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5270
5271 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5272
5273 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5274 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5275
5276 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5277 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5278 IDT.
5279
5280 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5281 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5282 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5283 a given linear address.
5284
5285 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5286 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5287 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5288
5289 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5290
5291 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5292
5293 * Changes in documentation.
5294
5295 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5296 Documentation License.
5297
5298 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5299 manual.
5300
5301 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5302
5303 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5304 manual.
5305
5306 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5307 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5308 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5309
5310 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5311
5312 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5313 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5314 contents of this file.
5315
5316 * gdba.el deleted
5317
5318 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5319
5320 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5321
5322 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5323
5324 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5325 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5326 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5327 greater level of detail.
5328
5329 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5330
5331 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5332 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5333 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5334 written.
5335
5336 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5337
5338 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5339 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5340 machines ``out of the box''.
5341
5342 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5343 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5344 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5345 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5346 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5347
5348 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5349 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5350 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5351 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5352 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5353
5354 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5355 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5356 also works.
5357
5358 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5359 GDB.
5360
5361 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5362 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5363 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5364 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5365
5366 * New native configurations
5367
5368 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5369 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5370
5371 * New targets
5372
5373 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5374 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5375 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5376 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5377
5378 * OBSOLETE configurations
5379
5380 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5381 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5382 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5383 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5384 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5385
5386 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5387 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5388 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5389 be permanently REMOVED.
5390
5391 * Gould support removed
5392
5393 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5394
5395 * New features for SVR4
5396
5397 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5398 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5399 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5400
5401 * Many C++ enhancements
5402
5403 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5404 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5405
5406 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5407
5408 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5409 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5410 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5411 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5412
5413 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5414 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5415
5416 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
5417
5418 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5419 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5420 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5421
5422 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5423 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5424
5425 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5426
5427 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5428 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5429 include ``set remote P-packet''.
5430
5431 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5432
5433 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5434 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5435 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5436
5437 * ``apropos'' command added.
5438
5439 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5440 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5441 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5442
5443 * New MI interface
5444
5445 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5446 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
5447 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5448 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5449 enabled by configuring with:
5450
5451 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5452
5453 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5454
5455 * New native configurations
5456
5457 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5458 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5459 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5460
5461 * New targets
5462
5463 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5464 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5465 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5466
5467 * OBSOLETE configurations
5468
5469 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5470
5471 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5472 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5473 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5474 be permanently REMOVED.
5475
5476 * ANSI/ISO C
5477
5478 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5479 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5480 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5481 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5482 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5483 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5484 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5485 already.
5486
5487 * Readline 2.2
5488
5489 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5490
5491 * set extension-language
5492
5493 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5494 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5495 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5496 set extension-language .c c++
5497 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5498 and their associated languages.
5499
5500 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5501
5502 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5503 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5504 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5505
5506 set processor NAME
5507
5508 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5509 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5510
5511 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5512 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5513 403 IBM PowerPC 403
5514 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5515 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5516 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5517 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5518 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5519 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5520 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5521 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5522
5523 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5524 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5525 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5526 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5527
5528 * HP-UX support
5529
5530 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5531 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5532 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5533 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5534 for xdb and dbx commands.
5535
5536 * Catchpoints
5537
5538 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5539 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5540 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5541
5542 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5543 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5544 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5545
5546 * Debugging across forks
5547
5548 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5549 in the inferior.
5550
5551 * TUI
5552
5553 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5554 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5555 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5556
5557 * GDB remote protocol additions
5558
5559 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5560 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5561 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5562 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5563
5564 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5565 full 64-bit address. The command
5566
5567 set remoteaddresssize 32
5568
5569 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5570 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5571 will be discarded.
5572
5573 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5574 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5575
5576 maint packet heythere
5577
5578 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5579 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5580 time.
5581
5582 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5583 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5584 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5585
5586 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5587
5588 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5589 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5590 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5591
5592 * mask-address variable for Mips
5593
5594 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5595 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5596 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5597
5598 * Higher serial baud rates
5599
5600 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5601 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5602 to achieve all of these rates.)
5603
5604 * i960 simulator
5605
5606 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5607 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5608
5609
5610 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5611
5612 * New native configurations
5613
5614 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5615 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5616 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5617 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5618 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5619 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5620 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5621
5622 * New targets
5623
5624 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5625 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5626 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5627 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5628 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5629 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5630 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5631 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5632 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5633 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5634 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5635
5636 * New debugging protocols
5637
5638 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5639 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5640 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5641 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5642 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5643 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5644
5645 * DWARF 2
5646
5647 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5648 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5649 information.
5650
5651 * Java frontend
5652
5653 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5654 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5655
5656 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5657
5658 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5659 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5660 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5661
5662 * Live range splitting
5663
5664 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5665 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5666 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5667
5668 * Hurd support
5669
5670 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5671 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5672
5673 * ARM Thumb support
5674
5675 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5676 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5677 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5678 accordingly.
5679
5680 * MIPS16 support
5681
5682 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5683 instruction set.
5684
5685 * Overlay support
5686
5687 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5688 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5689 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5690 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5691 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5692 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5693
5694 * info symbol
5695
5696 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5697 the symbol at the specified address.
5698
5699 * Trace support
5700
5701 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5702 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5703 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5704 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5705 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5706
5707 * MIPS simulator
5708
5709 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5710 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5711 of most MIPS variants.
5712
5713 * Sparc simulator
5714
5715 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5716 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5717 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5718
5719 * set architecture
5720
5721 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5722 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5723 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5724 the possible architectures.
5725
5726 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5727
5728 * New native configurations
5729
5730 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5731 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5732 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5733 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5734 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5735 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5736
5737 * New targets
5738
5739 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5740 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5741 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5742 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5743 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5744 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
5745 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5746
5747 * PowerPC simulator
5748
5749 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5750 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5751 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5752 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5753 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5754
5755 * Solaris 2.5
5756
5757 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5758
5759 * Windows 95/NT native
5760
5761 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5762 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5763 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5764 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5765 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5766
5767 * dont-repeat command
5768
5769 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5770 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5771 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5772 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5773
5774 * Send break instead of ^C
5775
5776 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5777 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5778 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5779
5780 * Remote protocol timeout
5781
5782 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5783 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5784 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5785
5786 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5787
5788 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5789 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5790 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5791 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5792 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5793
5794 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5795 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5796 automatically on hpux10.
5797
5798 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5799
5800 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5801
5802 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5803
5804 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5805 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5806 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5807 every character. The default value is 1050.
5808
5809 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5810
5811 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5812 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5813 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5814 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5815 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5816 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5817
5818 * Speedups for remote debugging
5819
5820 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5821 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5822 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5823
5824 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5825
5826 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5827 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5828
5829 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5830
5831 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5832
5833 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5834 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5835
5836 * Remote targets use caching
5837
5838 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5839 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5840 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5841 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5842 off' turns the the data cache off.
5843
5844 * Remote targets may have threads
5845
5846 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5847 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5848 gdb/remote.c for details.
5849
5850 * NetROM support
5851
5852 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5853 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5854 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5855 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5856 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5857 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5858 sequence is something like
5859
5860 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5861 load <prog>
5862 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5863
5864 * Macintosh host
5865
5866 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5867 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5868 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5869 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5870 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5871 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5872 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5873 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5874
5875 * Autoconf
5876
5877 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5878 but does simplify configuration and building.
5879
5880 * hpux10
5881
5882 GDB now supports hpux10.
5883
5884 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5885
5886 * New native configurations
5887
5888 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5889 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5890 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5891 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5892
5893 * New targets
5894
5895 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5896 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5897 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5898 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5899 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5900
5901 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5902
5903 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5904 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5905 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5906 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5907 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5908
5909 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5910
5911 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5912 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5913 trivial example:
5914 define adder
5915 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5916
5917 To execute the command use:
5918 adder 1 2 3
5919
5920 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5921 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5922 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5923
5924 * New `if' and `while' commands
5925
5926 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5927 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5928 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5929 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5930 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5931 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5932 if the expression is zero.
5933
5934 * Fortran source language mode
5935
5936 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5937 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5938 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5939 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5940 Fortran compilers.
5941
5942 * Better HPUX support
5943
5944 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5945 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5946 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5947 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5948 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5949
5950 adb -w a.out
5951 __dld_flags?W 0x5
5952 control-d
5953
5954 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5955 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5956
5957 adb -w a.out
5958 __dld_flags?W 0x4
5959 control-d
5960
5961 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5962 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5963 external linkage.
5964
5965 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5966 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5967
5968 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5969
5970 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5971 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5972 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5973 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5974 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5975 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5976
5977 * New DOS host serial code
5978
5979 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5980 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5981 a PC's serial port.
5982
5983 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5984
5985 * New "complete" command
5986
5987 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5988 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5989
5990 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5991
5992 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5993 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5994
5995 * Breakpoint hit counts
5996
5997 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5998 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5999 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6000 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6001 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6002 that breakpoint.
6003
6004 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6005
6006 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6007 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6008 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6009
6010 * Shared library breakpoints
6011
6012 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6013 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6014
6015 * Hardware watchpoints
6016
6017 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6018 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6019
6020 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6021
6022 * Annotations
6023
6024 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6025 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6026
6027 * Improved Irix 5 support
6028
6029 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6030
6031 * Improved HPPA support
6032
6033 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6034
6035 * New native configurations
6036
6037 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6038 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6039 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6040 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6041
6042 * New targets
6043
6044 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6045 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6046 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6047
6048 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6049
6050 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6051 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6052
6053 * Fixes
6054
6055 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6056 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6057
6058 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6059
6060 * Irix 5 is now supported
6061
6062 * HPPA support
6063
6064 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6065 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6066 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6067 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6068 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6069
6070
6071 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6072
6073 * User visible changes:
6074
6075 * Remote Debugging
6076
6077 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6078 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6079 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6080 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6081 debugging info for the mips target).
6082
6083 * DEC Alpha native support
6084
6085 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6086 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6087 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6088 Alpha-specific notes.
6089
6090 * Preliminary thread implementation
6091
6092 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6093
6094 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6095
6096 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6097 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6098 for details).
6099
6100 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6101
6102 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6103 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6104 call methods, ...etc.
6105
6106 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6107
6108 * User visible changes:
6109
6110 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6111 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6112 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6113 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6114
6115 Filename completion now works.
6116
6117 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6118 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6119 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6120
6121 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6122 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6123 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6124 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6125 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6126
6127 * DEC alpha support
6128
6129 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6130 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6131
6132
6133 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6134
6135 * Testsuite
6136
6137 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6138 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6139 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6140
6141 * C++ demangling
6142
6143 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6144 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6145 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6146 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6147 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6148
6149 * Simulators
6150
6151 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6152 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6153 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6154
6155 * New targets supported
6156
6157 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6158 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6159 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6160 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6161 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6162
6163 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6164 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6165 GO32 memory extender.
6166
6167 * New remote protocols
6168
6169 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6170
6171 * New source languages supported
6172
6173 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6174 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6175 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6176
6177
6178 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6179
6180 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6181
6182 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6183 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6184 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6185 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6186 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6187 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6188
6189 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6190
6191 * Faster and better demangling
6192
6193 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6194 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6195 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6196 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6197 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6198 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6199 symbol lookups.
6200
6201 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6202 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6203 compiler does not actually implement.
6204
6205 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6206
6207 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6208 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6209 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6210 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6211 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6212 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6213 fix.
6214
6215 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6216 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6217
6218 * Improved configure script
6219
6220 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6221 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6222 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6223 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6224
6225 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6226 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6227 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6228 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6229 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6230 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6231
6232 * Documentation improvements
6233
6234 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6235 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6236 before submitting changes.
6237
6238 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6239 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6240 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6241 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6242 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6243
6244 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6245 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6246 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6247 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6248 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6249 around this problem.
6250
6251 * New features
6252
6253 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6254 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6255 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6256 the target program.
6257
6258 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6259 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6260
6261 * New native hosts supported
6262
6263 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6264 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6265
6266 * New targets supported
6267
6268 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6269
6270 * New file formats supported
6271
6272 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6273 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6274
6275 * Major bug fixes
6276
6277 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6278
6279 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6280 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6281
6282 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6283 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6284 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6285
6286 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6287 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6288
6289 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6290 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6291 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6292 libraries.
6293
6294 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6295 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6296 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6297 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6298 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6299
6300 * Internal improvements
6301
6302 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6303 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6304
6305 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6306 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6307 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6308 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6309 shared code that handles any of them.
6310
6311 * New command line options
6312
6313 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6314
6315 * Mmalloc licensing
6316
6317 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6318 General Public License.
6319
6320 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6321
6322 * Host/native/target split
6323
6324 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6325 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6326 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6327 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6328 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6329
6330 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6331 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6332 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6333 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6334 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6335 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6336 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6337
6338 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6339 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6340 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6341
6342 * New hosts supported
6343
6344 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6345 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6346 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6347
6348 * New targets supported
6349
6350 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6351 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6352
6353 * New native hosts supported
6354
6355 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6356 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6357 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6358
6359 * New file formats supported
6360
6361 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6362 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6363 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6364
6365 * New commands
6366
6367 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6368 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6369 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6370
6371 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6372
6373 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6374 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6375 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6376 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6377
6378 * C++ improvements
6379
6380 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6381 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6382 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6383
6384 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6385
6386 * Major bug fixes
6387
6388 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6389 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6390 by the compiler.
6391
6392 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6393 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6394
6395 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6396 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6397 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6398 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6399 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6400 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6401
6402 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6403 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6404 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6405 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6406
6407 * AMD 29k support
6408
6409 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6410 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6411 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6412 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6413 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6414
6415 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6416 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6417 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6418 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6419
6420 * Remote interfaces
6421
6422 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6423 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6424 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6425 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6426 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6427 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6428 each instruction being stepped through.
6429
6430 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6431 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6432
6433 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6434 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6435 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6436 processor with a serial port.
6437
6438 * Configuration
6439
6440 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6441 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6442 supported, and what files each one uses.
6443
6444 * Library changes
6445
6446 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6447 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6448 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6449 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6450
6451 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6452 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6453 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6454 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6455
6456 * Documentation
6457
6458 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6459 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6460 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6461 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6462 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6463 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6464
6465 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6466
6467
6468 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6469
6470 * Better support for C++ function names
6471
6472 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6473 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6474 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6475 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6476 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6477
6478 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6479 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6480 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6481 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6482 for the list of formats.
6483
6484 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6485
6486 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6487 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6488 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6489 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6490 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6491 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6492 this problem.)
6493
6494 * New 'maintenance' command
6495
6496 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6497 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6498 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6499
6500 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6501 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6502 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6503 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6504 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6505 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6506
6507 The following commands are new:
6508
6509 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6510 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6511 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6512
6513 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6514
6515 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6516 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6517 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6518 read after argv processing.
6519
6520 * New hosts supported
6521
6522 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6523
6524 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6525
6526 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6527 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6528 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6529 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6530 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6531 It costs extra.
6532
6533 * New targets supported
6534
6535 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6536
6537 * More smarts about finding #include files
6538
6539 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6540 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6541 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6542 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6543 the one that contains your sources.
6544
6545 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6546 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6547 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6548
6549 * Interesting infernals change
6550
6551 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6552 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6553 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6554 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6555
6556 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6557
6558 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6559 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6560 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6561
6562 See the ChangeLog for details.
6563
6564 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6565
6566 * New machines supported (host and target)
6567
6568 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6569
6570 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6571
6572 * New malloc package
6573
6574 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6575 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6576 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6577 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6578 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6579 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6580
6581 * info proc
6582
6583 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6584 'help info proc' for details.
6585
6586 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6587
6588 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6589 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6590 possible.
6591
6592 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6593
6594 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6595 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6596 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6597 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6598 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6599 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6600
6601 * Cross byte order fixes
6602
6603 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6604 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6605
6606 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6607
6608 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6609 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6610 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6611 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6612 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6613 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6614 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6615 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6616 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6617 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6618
6619 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6620 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6621 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6622 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6623
6624 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6625 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6626 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6627 use is:
6628
6629 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6630
6631 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6632 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6633 shared across multiple host platforms.
6634
6635 * longjmp() handling
6636
6637 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6638 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6639 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6640 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6641
6642 * Solaris 2.0
6643
6644 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6645 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6646 reading symbols.
6647
6648 * Bug fixes
6649
6650 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6651 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6652 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6653
6654 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6655
6656 * New machines supported (host and target)
6657
6658 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6659 (except core files)
6660 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6661 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6662
6663 * New machines supported (target)
6664
6665 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6666
6667 * C++ support
6668
6669 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6670 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6671 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6672
6673 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6674 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6675 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6676 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6677 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6678 released.
6679
6680 * New features for SVR4
6681
6682 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6683 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6684 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6685
6686 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6687 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6688 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6689
6690 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6691 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6692
6693 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6694
6695 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6696 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6697 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6698 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6699 same code linked statically.
6700
6701 * New Getopt
6702
6703 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6704 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6705 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6706 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6707 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6708 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6709
6710 * Bugs fixed
6711
6712 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6713 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6714 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6715
6716
6717 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6718
6719 * New machines supported (host and target)
6720
6721 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6722 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6723 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6724
6725 * Almost SCO Unix support
6726
6727 We had hoped to support:
6728 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6729 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6730 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6731 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6732
6733 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6734
6735 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6736 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6737 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6738 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6739 reqired (if any).
6740
6741 * New Readline
6742
6743 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6744 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6745 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6746
6747 * Bugs fixed
6748
6749 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6750 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6751 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6752
6753 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6754
6755 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6756 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6757 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6758
6759 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6760 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6761 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6762 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6763 version 2.
6764
6765 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6766 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6767 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6768 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6769 situation somewhat.
6770
6771 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6772 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6773 methods.
6774
6775 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6776 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6777 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6778
6779
6780 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6781
6782 * Improved configuration
6783
6784 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6785 Porting BFD is simpler.
6786
6787 * Stepping improved
6788
6789 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6790 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6791 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6792 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6793
6794 * Bug fixing
6795
6796 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6797
6798 * New host supported (not target)
6799
6800 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6801
6802
6803 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6804
6805 * Multiple source language support
6806
6807 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6808 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6809 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6810 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6811 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6812 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6813
6814 * GDB and Modula-2
6815
6816 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6817 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6818 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6819 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6820
6821 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6822 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6823 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6824
6825 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6826 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6827
6828 * set write on/off
6829
6830 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6831 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6832 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6833 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6834 effect immediately.
6835
6836 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6837
6838 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6839 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6840 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6841 examining core files.
6842
6843 * set listsize
6844
6845 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6846 The default is 10.
6847
6848 * New machines supported (host and target)
6849
6850 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6851 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6852 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6853
6854 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6855
6856 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6857
6858 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6859
6860 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6861 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6862 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6863
6864 * New remote interfaces
6865
6866 AMD 29000 Adapt
6867 AMD 29000 Minimon
6868
6869
6870 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6871
6872 * New Facilities
6873
6874 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6875
6876 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6877 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6878 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6879 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6880 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6881 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6882 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6883 stub on the target system.
6884
6885 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6886
6887 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6888 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6889 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6890
6891 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6892 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6893
6894
6895 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6896
6897 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6898 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6899
6900 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6901 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6902 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6903
6904 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6905 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6906 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6907 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6908
6909 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6910 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6911 it is already running. Default is ON.
6912
6913 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6914 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6915 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6916 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6917 Default is ON.
6918
6919 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6920 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6921 or the value of the environment variable
6922 GDBHISTFILE.
6923
6924 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6925 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6926 HISTSIZE.
6927
6928 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6929 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6930 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6931
6932 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6933 history expansion will be performed on
6934 command line input. The default is OFF.
6935
6936 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6937 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6938 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6939
6940 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6941 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6942 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6943 variable TERM.
6944
6945 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6946 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6947 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6948 variable TERM.
6949
6950 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6951 ``set width'' instead.
6952
6953 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6954 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6955 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6956 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6957
6958 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6959 is OFF.
6960
6961 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6962 "raw" form if off.
6963
6964 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6965 like instructions.
6966
6967 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6968
6969
6970 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6971
6972 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6973 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6974 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6975 window.
6976
6977
6978 * Support for Shared Libraries
6979
6980 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6981 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6982 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6983 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6984 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6985 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6986 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6987 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6988
6989 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6990 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6991 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6992
6993 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6994
6995
6996 * Watchpoints
6997
6998 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6999 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7000 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7001 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7002 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7003 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7004
7005 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7006
7007 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7008
7009 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7010 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7011 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7012
7013
7014 * C++ multiple inheritance
7015
7016 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7017 for C++ programs.
7018
7019 * C++ exception handling
7020
7021 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7022 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7023 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7024 handler's context).
7025
7026 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7027 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7028 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7029
7030 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7031 current stack frame.
7032
7033
7034 * Minor command changes
7035
7036 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7037 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7038 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7039
7040 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7041 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7042 frames without printing.
7043
7044 * New directory command
7045
7046 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7047 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7048 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7049 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7050 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7051
7052 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7053
7054 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7055 for more details.
7056
7057 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7058 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7059 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7060 where the program that you are debugging will run.
This page took 0.237307 seconds and 4 git commands to generate.