1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
7 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
8 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
9 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
11 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
12 now complete on file names.
14 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
15 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
16 For instance, consider:
18 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
19 # struct example variable;
22 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
23 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
25 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
26 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
29 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
30 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
31 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
36 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
39 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
40 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
41 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
44 Obtains additional operating system information
48 Read or write additional signal information.
50 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
52 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
53 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
54 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
56 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
59 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
60 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
62 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
63 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
64 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
66 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
67 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
69 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
71 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
73 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
74 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
76 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
77 list of section offsets.
79 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
80 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
83 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
84 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
85 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
87 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
89 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
90 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
92 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
93 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
94 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
96 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
97 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
99 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
104 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
105 available is determined at configure time.
107 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
109 * Ada tasking support
111 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
115 Print the list of Ada tasks.
117 Print detailed information about task number N.
119 Print the task number of the current task.
121 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
123 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
124 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
128 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
130 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
132 maint set python print-stack
133 maint show python print-stack
134 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
137 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
139 set print symbol-loading
140 show print symbol-loading
141 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
145 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
150 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
152 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
153 show multiple-symbols
154 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
155 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
156 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
158 set breakpoint always-inserted
159 show breakpoint always-inserted
160 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
161 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
162 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
164 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
165 show arm fallback-mode
166 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
168 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
169 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
170 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
171 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
173 set disable-randomization
174 show disable-randomization
175 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
176 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
177 multiple debugging sessions.
180 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
181 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
182 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
183 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
185 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
187 set tcp connect-timeout
188 show tcp connect-timeout
189 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
190 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
191 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
196 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
200 Show operating system information about processes.
202 * New native configurations
204 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
206 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
210 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
216 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
218 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
220 * New native configurations
222 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
223 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
227 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
228 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
230 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
232 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
233 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
234 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
235 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
237 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
238 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
240 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
243 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
244 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
245 and in inlined functions.
247 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
248 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
249 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
251 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
253 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
254 registers on PowerPC targets.
256 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
257 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
259 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
260 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
262 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
263 extended-remote mode.
265 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
266 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
267 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
268 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
270 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
271 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
272 target architectures.
274 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
275 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
276 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
277 stored in two consecutive float registers.
279 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
282 * Improved support for debugging Ada
283 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
285 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
286 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
287 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
288 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
290 - Improved command completion in Ada
293 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
298 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
299 show print frame-arguments
300 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
301 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
306 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
313 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
322 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
325 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
329 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
331 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
333 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
334 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
335 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
337 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
338 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
339 -Bsymbolic linker option.
341 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
342 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
345 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
346 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
348 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
349 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
351 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
353 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
354 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
355 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
357 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
358 automatically displayed as character or string data.
360 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
361 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
364 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
365 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
366 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
368 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
371 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
372 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
373 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
375 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
377 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
379 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
380 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
381 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
383 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
384 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
386 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
387 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
388 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
389 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
390 Windows and SymbianOS).
392 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
393 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
395 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
396 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
402 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
403 when debugging using remote targets.
405 set mem inaccessible-by-default
406 show mem inaccessible-by-default
407 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
408 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
409 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
410 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
411 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
413 set breakpoint auto-hw
414 show breakpoint auto-hw
415 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
416 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
417 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
418 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
419 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
420 including "next" and "finish".
423 catch exception unhandled
424 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
427 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
431 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
432 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
433 an alias to "set sysroot".
436 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
437 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
440 * New native configurations
442 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
447 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
448 not query the target for its built-in description.
452 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
453 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
454 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
459 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
460 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
463 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
468 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
469 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
471 qXfer:libraries:read:
472 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
473 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
474 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
475 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
479 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
488 i[34567]86-*-netware*
489 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
490 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
492 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
495 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
496 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
505 * Other removed features
512 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
519 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
524 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
525 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
530 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
531 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
533 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
535 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
536 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
537 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
538 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
542 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
543 in debugging information.
547 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
548 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
550 set mips stack-arg-size
551 set mips saved-gpreg-size
553 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
555 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
560 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
562 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
563 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
564 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
566 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
567 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
570 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
571 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
573 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
574 stub provides the required support.
576 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
577 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
582 unset substitute-path
584 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
585 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
586 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
587 between compilation and debugging.
591 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
592 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
593 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
597 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
599 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
600 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
602 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
607 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
608 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
609 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
610 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
614 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
615 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
617 qXfer:memory-map:read:
618 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
619 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
624 Erase and program a flash memory device.
626 * Removed remote packets
629 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
630 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
632 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
636 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
638 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
642 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
643 only if it doesn't already have a value.
645 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
647 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
649 restart <n> Return the program state to a
650 previously saved state.
652 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
654 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
656 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
657 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
659 info forks List forks of the user program that
660 are available to be debugged.
662 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
663 forks of the user program that are
664 available to be debugged.
666 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
667 that are available to be debugged (and
668 kill the forked process).
670 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
671 that are available to be debugged (and
672 allow the process to continue).
676 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
678 * Improved Windows host support
680 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
681 native console support, and remote communications using either
682 network sockets or serial ports.
684 * Improved Modula-2 language support
686 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
687 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
688 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
689 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
690 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
691 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
695 The ARM rdi-share module.
697 The Netware NLM debug server.
699 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
701 * New native configurations
703 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
704 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
708 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
710 * New command line options
712 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
713 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
714 the child (debugged) program exited with.
715 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
716 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
717 specified multiple times and in conjunction
718 with the --command (-x) option.
720 * Deprecated commands removed
722 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
726 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
727 othernames set arm disassembler
728 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
729 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
730 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
733 * New BSD user-level threads support
735 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
736 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
739 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
740 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
741 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
743 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
744 are not yet supported.
746 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
747 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
749 * REMOVED configurations and files
751 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
752 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
753 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
755 * New "set print array-indexes" command
757 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
758 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
761 * VAX floating point support
763 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
765 * User-defined command support
767 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
768 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
769 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
771 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
773 * New command line option
775 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
778 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
780 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
781 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
782 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
783 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
784 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
786 * Internationalization
788 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
789 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
790 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
794 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
795 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
796 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
798 * New native configurations
800 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
804 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
805 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
807 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
809 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
810 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
811 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
814 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
815 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
816 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
828 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
829 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
831 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
833 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
834 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
835 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
845 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
847 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
849 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
850 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
853 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
855 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
856 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
857 IRIX long double values).
861 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
862 command. This problem has been fixed.
864 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
866 * Fix for ``many threads''
868 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
869 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
872 ptrace: No such process.
873 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
875 This problem has been fixed.
877 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
879 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
882 * New ``start'' command.
884 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
886 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
888 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
889 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
890 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
892 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
893 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
894 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
895 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
896 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
897 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
898 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
899 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
900 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
902 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
904 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
905 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
906 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
907 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
908 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
910 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
911 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
912 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
914 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
916 * New native configurations
918 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
919 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
920 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
921 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
922 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
923 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
924 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
926 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
928 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
929 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
930 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
931 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
932 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
933 work, was also included.
935 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
936 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
946 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
947 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
949 * REMOVED configurations and files
951 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
952 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
953 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
954 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
955 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
956 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
957 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
958 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
959 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
961 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
963 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
965 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
967 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
968 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
969 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
970 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
973 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
975 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
976 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
977 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
978 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
979 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
980 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
983 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
985 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
987 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
988 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
989 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
991 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
993 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
994 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
996 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
998 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
999 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1000 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1002 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1004 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1005 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1007 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1009 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1010 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1011 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1013 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1015 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1016 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1017 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1019 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1021 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1023 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1024 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1026 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1028 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1029 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1030 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1031 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1033 * Revised SPARC target
1035 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1036 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1037 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1038 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1039 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1043 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1044 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1045 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1048 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1050 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1051 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1054 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1056 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1057 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1058 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1059 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1060 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1061 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1062 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1063 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1064 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1066 * New native configurations
1068 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1069 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1070 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1071 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1072 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1074 * New debugging protocols
1076 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1078 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1080 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1081 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1082 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1084 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1086 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1087 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1088 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1089 permanently REMOVED.
1091 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1092 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1093 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1094 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1095 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1096 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1097 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1098 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1099 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1100 sonymips mips-sony-*
1101 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1103 * REMOVED configurations and files
1105 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1106 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1107 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1108 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1109 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1110 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1111 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1112 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1113 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1114 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1115 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1116 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1117 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1118 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1119 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1120 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1121 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1123 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1127 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1128 integrated into GDB.
1130 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1132 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1133 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1134 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1137 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1138 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1139 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1143 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1144 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1145 remote protocol documentation for details.
1147 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1149 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1150 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1151 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1154 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1156 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1157 per-thread variables.
1159 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1161 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1162 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1164 * Separate debug info.
1166 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1167 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1168 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1169 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1170 and optional debug files.
1172 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1174 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1175 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1178 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1179 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1183 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1184 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1185 considered "useable".
1187 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1189 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1190 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1193 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1195 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1196 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1198 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1200 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1201 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1204 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1206 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1207 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1211 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1212 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1213 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1214 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1215 data, for more informative profiling results.
1217 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1219 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1220 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1221 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1223 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1226 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1227 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1228 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1229 in a subsequent -var-update.
1231 * New native configurations.
1233 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1235 * Multi-arched targets.
1237 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1238 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1240 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1242 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1243 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1244 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1245 permanently REMOVED.
1247 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1248 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1249 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1250 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1251 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1252 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1253 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1254 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1255 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1256 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1257 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1258 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1260 * REMOVED configurations and files
1263 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1264 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1265 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1266 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1267 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1268 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1270 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1271 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1272 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1273 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1274 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1275 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1277 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1279 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1280 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1281 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1282 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1283 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1285 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1287 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1289 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1290 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1291 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1292 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1293 shared libs like mad''.
1295 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1297 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1298 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1299 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1300 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1302 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1304 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1305 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1308 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1309 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1311 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1312 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1314 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1315 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1316 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1317 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1319 * Multi-arched targets.
1321 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1322 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1324 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1325 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1326 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1330 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1333 * New native configurations
1335 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1336 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1337 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1338 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1340 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1342 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1343 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1344 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1345 permanently REMOVED.
1347 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1348 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1349 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1350 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1351 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1352 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1353 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1354 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1355 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1356 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1358 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1359 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1361 * OBSOLETE languages
1363 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1365 * REMOVED configurations and files
1367 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1368 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1369 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1370 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1371 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1373 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1375 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1377 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1378 commands. The default is 1024.
1380 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1382 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1384 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1386 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1387 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1388 from a file into memory (restore).
1390 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1392 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1393 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1394 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1396 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1404 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1405 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1406 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1408 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1409 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1410 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1412 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1413 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1414 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1416 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1417 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1418 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1420 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1422 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1424 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1425 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1426 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1427 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1428 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1429 (notably embedded) targets.
1431 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1433 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1434 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1435 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1436 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1438 * New command line option
1440 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1442 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1444 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1445 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1446 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1447 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1448 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1449 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1450 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1451 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1452 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1453 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1455 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1457 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1458 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1460 * New native configurations
1462 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1463 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1464 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1465 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1469 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1471 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1473 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1474 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1475 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1476 permanently REMOVED.
1478 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1479 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1480 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1481 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1482 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1484 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1486 * REMOVED configurations and files
1488 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1490 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1491 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1492 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1493 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1494 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1495 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1496 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1497 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1498 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1499 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1500 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1502 * Changes to command line processing
1504 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1505 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1507 * Changes to key bindings
1509 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1511 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1513 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1515 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1518 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1520 Numerous documentation fixes.
1522 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1524 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1526 * New native configurations
1528 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1529 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1530 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1531 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1532 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1533 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1537 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1539 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1541 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1543 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1544 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1545 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1546 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1547 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1549 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1550 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1551 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1552 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1553 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1554 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1555 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1556 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1558 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1559 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1561 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1562 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1563 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1564 permanently REMOVED.
1566 * REMOVED configurations and files
1568 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1569 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1571 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1575 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1577 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1578 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1583 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1585 * The MI enabled by default.
1587 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1588 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1589 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1590 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1591 which is now deprecated.
1593 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1595 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1596 main features are supported:
1598 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1600 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1603 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1605 - a Pascal expression parser.
1607 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1609 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1611 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1613 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1614 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1616 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1618 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1620 * Changes in completion.
1622 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1623 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1624 users expect at the shell prompt.
1626 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1627 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1628 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1629 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1630 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1631 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1632 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1634 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1636 * New platform-independent commands:
1638 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1639 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1640 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1642 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1644 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1645 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1646 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1648 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1650 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1651 multi-threaded programs though.
1653 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1655 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1657 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1658 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1661 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1663 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1664 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1665 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1666 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1667 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1670 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1671 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1672 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1674 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1676 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1677 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1679 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1680 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1683 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1684 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1685 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1686 a given linear address.
1688 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1689 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1690 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1692 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1694 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1696 * Changes in documentation.
1698 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1699 Documentation License.
1701 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1704 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1706 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1709 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1710 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1711 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1713 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1715 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1716 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1717 contents of this file.
1721 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1723 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1725 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1727 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1728 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1729 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1730 greater level of detail.
1732 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1734 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1735 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1736 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1739 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1741 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1742 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1743 machines ``out of the box''.
1745 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1746 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1747 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1748 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1749 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1751 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1752 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1753 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1754 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1755 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1757 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1758 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1761 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1764 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1765 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1766 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1767 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1769 * New native configurations
1771 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1772 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1776 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1777 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1778 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1779 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1781 * OBSOLETE configurations
1783 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1784 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1786 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1789 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1790 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1791 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1792 be permanently REMOVED.
1794 * Gould support removed
1796 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1798 * New features for SVR4
1800 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1801 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1802 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1804 * Many C++ enhancements
1806 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1807 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1809 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1811 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1812 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1813 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1814 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1816 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1817 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1819 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1821 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1822 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1823 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1825 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1826 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1828 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1830 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1831 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1832 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1834 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1836 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1837 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1838 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1840 * ``apropos'' command added.
1842 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1843 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1844 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1848 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1849 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1850 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1851 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1852 enabled by configuring with:
1854 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1856 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1858 * New native configurations
1860 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1861 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1862 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1866 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1867 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1868 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1870 * OBSOLETE configurations
1872 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1874 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1875 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1876 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1877 be permanently REMOVED.
1881 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1882 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1883 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1884 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1885 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1886 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1887 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1892 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1894 * set extension-language
1896 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1897 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1898 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1899 set extension-language .c c++
1900 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1901 and their associated languages.
1903 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1905 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1906 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1907 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1911 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1912 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1914 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1915 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1917 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1918 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1919 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1920 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1921 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1922 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1923 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1924 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1926 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1927 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1928 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1929 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1933 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1934 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1935 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1936 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1937 for xdb and dbx commands.
1941 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1942 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1943 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1945 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1946 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1947 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1949 * Debugging across forks
1951 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1956 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1957 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1958 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1960 * GDB remote protocol additions
1962 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1963 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1964 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1965 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1967 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1968 full 64-bit address. The command
1970 set remoteaddresssize 32
1972 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1973 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1976 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1977 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1979 maint packet heythere
1981 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1982 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1985 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1986 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1987 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1989 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1991 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1992 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1993 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1995 * mask-address variable for Mips
1997 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1998 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1999 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2001 * Higher serial baud rates
2003 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2004 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2005 to achieve all of these rates.)
2009 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2010 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2013 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2015 * New native configurations
2017 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2018 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2019 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2020 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2021 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2022 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2023 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2027 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2028 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2029 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2030 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2031 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2032 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2033 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2034 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2035 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2036 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2037 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2039 * New debugging protocols
2041 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2042 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2043 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2044 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2045 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2046 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2050 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2051 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2056 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2057 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2059 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2061 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2062 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2063 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2065 * Live range splitting
2067 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2068 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2069 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2073 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2074 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2078 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2079 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2080 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2085 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2090 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2091 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2092 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2093 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2094 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2095 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2099 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2100 the symbol at the specified address.
2104 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2105 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2106 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2107 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2108 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2112 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2113 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2114 of most MIPS variants.
2118 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2119 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2120 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2124 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2125 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2126 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2127 the possible architectures.
2129 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2131 * New native configurations
2133 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2134 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2135 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2136 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2137 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2138 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2142 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2143 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2144 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2145 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2146 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2148 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2152 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2153 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2154 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2155 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2156 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2160 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2162 * Windows 95/NT native
2164 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2165 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2166 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2167 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2168 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2170 * dont-repeat command
2172 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2173 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2174 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2175 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2177 * Send break instead of ^C
2179 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2180 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2181 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2183 * Remote protocol timeout
2185 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2186 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2187 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2189 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2191 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2192 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2193 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2194 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2195 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2197 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2198 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2199 automatically on hpux10.
2201 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2203 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2205 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2207 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2208 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2209 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2210 every character. The default value is 1050.
2212 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2214 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2215 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2216 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2217 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2218 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2219 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2221 * Speedups for remote debugging
2223 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2224 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2225 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2227 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2229 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2230 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2232 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2234 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2236 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2237 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2239 * Remote targets use caching
2241 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2242 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2243 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2244 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2245 off' turns the the data cache off.
2247 * Remote targets may have threads
2249 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2250 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2251 gdb/remote.c for details.
2255 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2256 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2257 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2258 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2259 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2260 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2261 sequence is something like
2263 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2265 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2269 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2270 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2271 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2272 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2273 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2274 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2275 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2276 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2280 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2281 but does simplify configuration and building.
2285 GDB now supports hpux10.
2287 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2289 * New native configurations
2291 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2292 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2293 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2294 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2298 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2299 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2300 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2301 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2304 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2306 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2307 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2308 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2309 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2310 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2312 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2314 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2315 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2318 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2320 To execute the command use:
2323 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2324 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2325 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2327 * New `if' and `while' commands
2329 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2330 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2331 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2332 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2333 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2334 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2335 if the expression is zero.
2337 * Fortran source language mode
2339 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2340 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2341 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2342 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2345 * Better HPUX support
2347 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2348 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2349 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2350 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2351 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2357 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2358 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2364 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2365 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2368 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2369 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2371 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2373 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2374 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2375 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2376 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2377 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2378 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2380 * New DOS host serial code
2382 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2383 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2386 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2388 * New "complete" command
2390 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2391 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2393 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2395 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2396 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2398 * Breakpoint hit counts
2400 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2401 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2402 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2403 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2404 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2407 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2409 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2410 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2411 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2413 * Shared library breakpoints
2415 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2416 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2418 * Hardware watchpoints
2420 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2421 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2423 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2427 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2428 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2430 * Improved Irix 5 support
2432 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2434 * Improved HPPA support
2436 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2438 * New native configurations
2440 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2441 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2442 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2443 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2447 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2448 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2451 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2453 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2454 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2458 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2459 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2461 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2463 * Irix 5 is now supported
2467 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2468 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2469 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2470 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2471 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2474 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2476 * User visible changes:
2480 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2481 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2482 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2483 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2484 debugging info for the mips target).
2486 * DEC Alpha native support
2488 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2489 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2490 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2491 Alpha-specific notes.
2493 * Preliminary thread implementation
2495 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2497 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2499 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2500 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2503 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2505 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2506 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2507 call methods, ...etc.
2509 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2511 * User visible changes:
2513 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2514 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2515 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2516 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2518 Filename completion now works.
2520 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2521 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2522 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2524 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2525 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2526 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2527 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2528 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2532 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2533 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2536 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2540 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2541 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2542 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2546 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2547 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2548 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2549 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2550 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2554 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2555 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2556 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2558 * New targets supported
2560 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2561 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2562 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2563 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2564 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2566 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2567 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2568 GO32 memory extender.
2570 * New remote protocols
2572 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2574 * New source languages supported
2576 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2577 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2578 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2581 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2583 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2585 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2586 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2587 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2588 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2589 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2590 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2592 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2594 * Faster and better demangling
2596 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2597 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2598 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2599 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2600 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2601 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2604 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2605 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2606 compiler does not actually implement.
2608 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2610 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2611 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2612 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2613 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2614 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2615 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2618 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2619 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2621 * Improved configure script
2623 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2624 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2625 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2626 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2628 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2629 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2630 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2631 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2632 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2633 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2635 * Documentation improvements
2637 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2638 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2639 before submitting changes.
2641 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2642 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2643 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2644 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2645 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2647 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2648 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2649 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2650 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2651 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2652 around this problem.
2656 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2657 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2658 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2661 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2662 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2664 * New native hosts supported
2666 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2667 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2669 * New targets supported
2671 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2673 * New file formats supported
2675 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2676 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2680 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2682 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2683 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2685 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2686 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2687 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2689 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2690 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2692 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2693 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2694 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2697 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2698 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2699 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2700 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2701 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2703 * Internal improvements
2705 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2706 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2708 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2709 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2710 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2711 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2712 shared code that handles any of them.
2714 * New command line options
2716 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2720 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2721 General Public License.
2723 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2725 * Host/native/target split
2727 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2728 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2729 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2730 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2731 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2733 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2734 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2735 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2736 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2737 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2738 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2739 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2741 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2742 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2743 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2745 * New hosts supported
2747 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2748 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2749 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2751 * New targets supported
2753 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2754 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2756 * New native hosts supported
2758 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2759 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2760 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2762 * New file formats supported
2764 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2765 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2766 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2770 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2771 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2772 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2774 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2776 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2777 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2778 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2779 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2783 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2784 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2785 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2787 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2791 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2792 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2795 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2796 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2798 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2799 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2800 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2801 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2802 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2803 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2805 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2806 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2807 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2808 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2812 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2813 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2814 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2815 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2816 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2818 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2819 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2820 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2821 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2825 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2826 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2827 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2828 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2829 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2830 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2831 each instruction being stepped through.
2833 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2834 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2836 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2837 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2838 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2839 processor with a serial port.
2843 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2844 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2845 supported, and what files each one uses.
2849 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2850 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2851 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2852 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2854 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2855 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2856 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2857 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2861 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2862 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2863 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2864 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2865 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2866 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2868 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2871 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2873 * Better support for C++ function names
2875 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2876 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2877 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2878 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2879 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2881 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2882 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2883 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2884 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2885 for the list of formats.
2887 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2889 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2890 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2891 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2892 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2893 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2894 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2897 * New 'maintenance' command
2899 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2900 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2901 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2903 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2904 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2905 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2906 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2907 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2908 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2910 The following commands are new:
2912 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2913 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2914 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2916 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2918 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2919 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2920 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2921 read after argv processing.
2923 * New hosts supported
2925 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2927 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2929 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2930 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2931 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2932 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2933 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2936 * New targets supported
2938 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2940 * More smarts about finding #include files
2942 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2943 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2944 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2945 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2946 the one that contains your sources.
2948 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2949 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2950 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2952 * Interesting infernals change
2954 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2955 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2956 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2957 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2959 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2961 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2962 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2963 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2965 See the ChangeLog for details.
2967 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2969 * New machines supported (host and target)
2971 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2973 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2975 * New malloc package
2977 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2978 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2979 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2980 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2981 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2982 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2986 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2987 'help info proc' for details.
2989 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2991 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2992 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2995 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2997 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2998 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2999 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3000 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3001 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3002 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3004 * Cross byte order fixes
3006 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3007 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3009 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3011 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3012 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3013 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3014 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3015 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3016 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3017 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3018 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3019 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3020 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3022 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3023 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3024 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3025 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3027 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3028 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3029 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3032 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3034 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3035 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3036 shared across multiple host platforms.
3038 * longjmp() handling
3040 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3041 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3042 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3043 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3047 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3048 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3053 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3054 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3055 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3057 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3059 * New machines supported (host and target)
3061 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3063 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3064 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3066 * New machines supported (target)
3068 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3072 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3073 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3074 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3076 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3077 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3078 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3079 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3080 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3083 * New features for SVR4
3085 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3086 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3087 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3089 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3090 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3091 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3093 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3094 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3096 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3098 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3099 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3100 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3101 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3102 same code linked statically.
3106 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3107 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3108 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3109 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3110 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3111 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3115 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3116 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3117 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3120 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3122 * New machines supported (host and target)
3124 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3125 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3126 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3128 * Almost SCO Unix support
3130 We had hoped to support:
3131 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3132 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3133 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3134 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3136 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3138 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3139 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3140 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3141 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3146 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3147 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3148 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3152 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3153 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3154 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3156 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3158 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3159 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3160 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3162 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3163 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3164 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3165 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3168 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3169 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3170 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3171 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3174 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3175 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3178 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3179 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3180 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3183 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3185 * Improved configuration
3187 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3188 Porting BFD is simpler.
3192 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3193 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3194 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3195 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3199 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3201 * New host supported (not target)
3203 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3206 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3208 * Multiple source language support
3210 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3211 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3212 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3213 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3214 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3215 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3219 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3220 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3221 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3222 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3224 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3225 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3226 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3228 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3229 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3233 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3234 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3235 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3236 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3239 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3241 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3242 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3243 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3244 examining core files.
3248 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3251 * New machines supported (host and target)
3253 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3254 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3255 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3257 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3259 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3261 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3263 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3264 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3265 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3267 * New remote interfaces
3273 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3277 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3279 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3280 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3281 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3282 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3283 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3284 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3285 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3286 stub on the target system.
3288 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3290 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3291 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3292 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3294 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3295 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3298 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3300 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3301 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3303 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3304 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3305 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3307 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3308 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3309 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3310 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3312 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3313 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3314 it is already running. Default is ON.
3316 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3317 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3318 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3319 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3322 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3323 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3324 or the value of the environment variable
3327 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3328 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3331 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3332 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3333 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3335 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3336 history expansion will be performed on
3337 command line input. The default is OFF.
3339 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3340 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3341 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3343 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3344 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3345 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3348 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3349 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3350 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3353 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3354 ``set width'' instead.
3356 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3357 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3358 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3359 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3361 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3364 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3367 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3370 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3373 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3375 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3376 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3377 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3381 * Support for Shared Libraries
3383 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3384 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3385 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3386 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3387 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3388 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3389 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3390 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3392 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3393 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3394 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3396 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3401 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3402 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3403 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3404 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3405 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3406 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3408 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3410 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3412 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3413 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3414 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3417 * C++ multiple inheritance
3419 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3422 * C++ exception handling
3424 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3425 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3426 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3429 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3430 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3431 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3433 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3434 current stack frame.
3437 * Minor command changes
3439 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3440 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3441 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3443 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3444 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3445 frames without printing.
3447 * New directory command
3449 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3450 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3451 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3452 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3453 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3455 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3457 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3460 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3461 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3462 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3463 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob