1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.7
6 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
9 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
10 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
11 and in inlined functions.
13 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
15 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
16 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
17 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
19 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
20 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
21 -Bsymbolic linker option.
23 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
24 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
27 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
28 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
30 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
31 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
33 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
35 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
36 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
37 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
39 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
40 automatically displayed as character or string data.
42 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
43 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
46 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
47 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
48 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
50 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
53 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
54 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
55 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
57 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
59 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
61 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
62 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
63 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
65 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
66 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
68 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
69 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
70 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
71 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
72 Windows and SymbianOS).
74 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
75 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
77 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
78 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
84 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
85 when debugging using remote targets.
87 set mem inaccessible-by-default
88 show mem inaccessible-by-default
89 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
90 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
91 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
92 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
93 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
95 set breakpoint auto-hw
96 show breakpoint auto-hw
97 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
98 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
99 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
100 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
101 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
102 including "next" and "finish".
105 catch exception unhandled
106 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
109 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
113 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
114 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
115 an alias to "set sysroot".
118 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
119 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
122 * New native configurations
124 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
129 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
130 not query the target for its built-in description.
134 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
135 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
136 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
141 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
142 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
145 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
150 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
151 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
153 qXfer:libraries:read:
154 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
155 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
156 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
157 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
161 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
170 i[34567]86-*-netware*
171 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
172 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
174 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
177 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
178 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
187 * Other removed features
194 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
201 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
206 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
207 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
212 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
213 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
215 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
217 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
218 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
219 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
220 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
224 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
225 in debugging information.
229 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
230 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
232 set mips stack-arg-size
233 set mips saved-gpreg-size
235 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
237 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
242 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
244 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
245 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
246 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
248 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
249 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
252 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
253 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
255 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
256 stub provides the required support.
258 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
259 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
264 unset substitute-path
266 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
267 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
268 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
269 between compilation and debugging.
273 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
274 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
275 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
279 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
281 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
282 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
284 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
289 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
290 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
291 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
292 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
296 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
297 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
299 qXfer:memory-map:read:
300 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
301 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
306 Erase and program a flash memory device.
308 * Removed remote packets
311 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
312 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
314 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
318 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
320 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
324 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
325 only if it doesn't already have a value.
327 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
329 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
331 restart <n> Return the program state to a
332 previously saved state.
334 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
336 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
338 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
339 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
341 info forks List forks of the user program that
342 are available to be debugged.
344 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
345 forks of the user program that are
346 available to be debugged.
348 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
349 that are available to be debugged (and
350 kill the forked process).
352 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
353 that are available to be debugged (and
354 allow the process to continue).
358 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
360 * Improved Windows host support
362 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
363 native console support, and remote communications using either
364 network sockets or serial ports.
366 * Improved Modula-2 language support
368 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
369 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
370 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
371 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
372 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
373 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
377 The ARM rdi-share module.
379 The Netware NLM debug server.
381 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
383 * New native configurations
385 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
386 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
390 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
392 * New command line options
394 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
395 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
396 the child (debugged) program exited with.
397 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
398 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
399 specified multiple times and in conjunction
400 with the --command (-x) option.
402 * Deprecated commands removed
404 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
408 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
409 othernames set arm disassembler
410 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
411 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
412 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
415 * New BSD user-level threads support
417 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
418 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
421 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
422 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
423 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
425 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
426 are not yet supported.
428 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
429 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
431 * REMOVED configurations and files
433 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
434 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
435 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
437 * New "set print array-indexes" command
439 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
440 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
443 * VAX floating point support
445 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
447 * User-defined command support
449 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
450 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
451 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
453 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
455 * New command line option
457 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
460 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
462 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
463 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
464 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
465 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
466 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
468 * Internationalization
470 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
471 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
472 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
476 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
477 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
478 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
480 * New native configurations
482 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
486 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
487 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
489 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
491 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
492 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
493 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
496 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
497 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
498 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
510 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
511 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
513 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
515 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
516 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
517 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
527 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
529 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
531 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
532 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
535 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
537 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
538 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
539 IRIX long double values).
543 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
544 command. This problem has been fixed.
546 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
548 * Fix for ``many threads''
550 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
551 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
554 ptrace: No such process.
555 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
557 This problem has been fixed.
559 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
561 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
564 * New ``start'' command.
566 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
568 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
570 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
571 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
572 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
574 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
575 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
576 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
577 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
578 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
579 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
580 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
581 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
582 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
584 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
586 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
587 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
588 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
589 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
590 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
592 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
593 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
594 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
596 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
598 * New native configurations
600 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
601 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
602 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
603 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
604 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
605 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
606 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
608 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
610 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
611 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
612 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
613 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
614 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
615 work, was also included.
617 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
618 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
628 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
629 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
631 * REMOVED configurations and files
633 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
634 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
635 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
636 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
637 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
638 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
639 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
640 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
641 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
643 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
645 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
647 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
649 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
650 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
651 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
652 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
655 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
657 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
658 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
659 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
660 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
661 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
662 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
665 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
667 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
669 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
670 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
671 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
673 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
675 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
676 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
678 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
680 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
681 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
682 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
684 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
686 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
687 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
689 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
691 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
692 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
693 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
695 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
697 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
698 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
699 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
701 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
703 * Removed --with-mmalloc
705 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
706 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
708 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
710 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
711 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
712 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
713 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
715 * Revised SPARC target
717 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
718 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
719 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
720 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
721 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
725 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
726 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
727 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
730 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
732 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
733 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
736 * C++ nested types and namespaces
738 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
739 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
740 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
741 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
742 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
743 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
744 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
745 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
746 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
748 * New native configurations
750 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
751 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
752 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
753 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
754 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
756 * New debugging protocols
758 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
760 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
762 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
763 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
764 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
766 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
768 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
769 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
770 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
773 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
774 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
775 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
776 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
777 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
778 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
779 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
780 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
781 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
783 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
785 * REMOVED configurations and files
787 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
788 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
789 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
790 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
791 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
792 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
793 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
794 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
795 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
796 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
797 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
798 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
799 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
800 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
801 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
802 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
803 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
805 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
809 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
812 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
814 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
815 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
816 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
819 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
820 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
825 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
826 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
827 remote protocol documentation for details.
829 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
831 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
832 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
833 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
836 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
838 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
839 per-thread variables.
841 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
843 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
844 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
846 * Separate debug info.
848 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
849 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
850 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
851 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
852 and optional debug files.
854 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
856 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
857 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
860 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
861 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
865 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
866 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
867 considered "useable".
869 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
871 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
872 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
875 * GDB supports logging output to a file
877 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
878 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
880 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
882 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
883 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
886 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
888 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
889 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
893 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
894 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
895 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
896 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
897 data, for more informative profiling results.
899 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
901 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
902 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
903 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
905 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
908 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
909 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
910 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
911 in a subsequent -var-update.
913 * New native configurations.
915 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
917 * Multi-arched targets.
919 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
920 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
922 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
924 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
925 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
926 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
929 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
930 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
931 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
932 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
933 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
934 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
935 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
936 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
937 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
938 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
939 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
940 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
942 * REMOVED configurations and files
945 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
946 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
947 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
948 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
949 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
950 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
952 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
953 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
954 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
955 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
956 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
957 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
959 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
961 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
962 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
963 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
964 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
965 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
967 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
969 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
971 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
972 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
973 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
974 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
975 shared libs like mad''.
977 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
979 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
980 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
981 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
982 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
984 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
986 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
987 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
990 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
991 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
993 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
994 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
996 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
997 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
998 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
999 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1001 * Multi-arched targets.
1003 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1004 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1006 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1007 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1008 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1012 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1015 * New native configurations
1017 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1018 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1019 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1020 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1022 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1024 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1025 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1026 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1027 permanently REMOVED.
1029 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1030 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1031 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1032 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1033 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1034 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1035 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1036 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1037 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1038 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1040 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1041 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1043 * OBSOLETE languages
1045 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1047 * REMOVED configurations and files
1049 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1050 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1051 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1052 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1053 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1055 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1057 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1059 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1060 commands. The default is 1024.
1062 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1064 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1066 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1068 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1069 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1070 from a file into memory (restore).
1072 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1074 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1075 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1076 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1078 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1086 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1087 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1088 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1090 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1091 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1092 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1094 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1095 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1096 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1098 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1099 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1100 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1102 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1104 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1106 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1107 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1108 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1109 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1110 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1111 (notably embedded) targets.
1113 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1115 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1116 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1117 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1118 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1120 * New command line option
1122 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1124 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1126 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1127 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1128 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1129 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1130 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1131 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1132 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1133 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1134 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1135 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1137 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1139 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1140 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1142 * New native configurations
1144 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1145 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1146 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1147 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1151 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1153 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1155 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1156 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1157 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1158 permanently REMOVED.
1160 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1161 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1162 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1163 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1164 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1166 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1168 * REMOVED configurations and files
1170 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1172 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1173 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1174 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1175 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1176 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1177 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1178 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1179 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1180 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1181 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1182 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1184 * Changes to command line processing
1186 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1187 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1189 * Changes to key bindings
1191 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1193 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1195 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1197 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1200 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1202 Numerous documentation fixes.
1204 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1206 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1208 * New native configurations
1210 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1211 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1212 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1213 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1214 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1215 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1219 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1221 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1223 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1225 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1226 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1227 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1228 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1229 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1231 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1232 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1233 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1234 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1235 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1236 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1237 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1238 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1240 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1241 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1243 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1244 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1245 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1246 permanently REMOVED.
1248 * REMOVED configurations and files
1250 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1251 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1253 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1257 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1259 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1260 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1265 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1267 * The MI enabled by default.
1269 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1270 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1271 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1272 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1273 which is now deprecated.
1275 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1277 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1278 main features are supported:
1280 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1282 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1285 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1287 - a Pascal expression parser.
1289 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1291 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1293 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1295 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1296 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1298 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1300 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1302 * Changes in completion.
1304 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1305 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1306 users expect at the shell prompt.
1308 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1309 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1310 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1311 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1312 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1313 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1314 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1316 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1318 * New platform-independent commands:
1320 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1321 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1322 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1324 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1326 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1327 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1328 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1330 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1332 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1333 multi-threaded programs though.
1335 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1337 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1339 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1340 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1343 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1345 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1346 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1347 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1348 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1349 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1352 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1353 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1354 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1356 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1358 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1359 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1361 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1362 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1365 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1366 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1367 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1368 a given linear address.
1370 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1371 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1372 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1374 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1376 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1378 * Changes in documentation.
1380 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1381 Documentation License.
1383 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1386 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1388 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1391 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1392 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1393 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1395 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1397 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1398 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1399 contents of this file.
1403 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1405 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1407 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1409 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1410 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1411 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1412 greater level of detail.
1414 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1416 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1417 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1418 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1421 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1423 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1424 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1425 machines ``out of the box''.
1427 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1428 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1429 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1430 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1431 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1433 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1434 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1435 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1436 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1437 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1439 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1440 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1443 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1446 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1447 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1448 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1449 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1451 * New native configurations
1453 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1454 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1458 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1459 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1460 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1461 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1463 * OBSOLETE configurations
1465 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1466 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1468 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1471 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1472 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1473 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1474 be permanently REMOVED.
1476 * Gould support removed
1478 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1480 * New features for SVR4
1482 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1483 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1484 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1486 * Many C++ enhancements
1488 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1489 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1491 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1493 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1494 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1495 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1496 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1498 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1499 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1501 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1503 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1504 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1505 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1507 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1508 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1510 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1512 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1513 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1514 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1516 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1518 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1519 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1520 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1522 * ``apropos'' command added.
1524 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1525 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1526 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1530 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1531 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1532 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1533 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1534 enabled by configuring with:
1536 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1538 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1540 * New native configurations
1542 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1543 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1544 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1548 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1549 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1550 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1552 * OBSOLETE configurations
1554 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1556 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1557 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1558 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1559 be permanently REMOVED.
1563 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1564 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1565 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1566 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1567 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1568 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1569 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1574 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1576 * set extension-language
1578 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1579 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1580 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1581 set extension-language .c c++
1582 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1583 and their associated languages.
1585 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1587 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1588 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1589 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1593 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1594 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1596 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1597 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1599 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1600 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1601 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1602 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1603 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1604 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1605 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1606 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1608 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1609 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1610 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1611 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1615 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1616 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1617 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1618 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1619 for xdb and dbx commands.
1623 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1624 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1625 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1627 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1628 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1629 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1631 * Debugging across forks
1633 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1638 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1639 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1640 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1642 * GDB remote protocol additions
1644 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1645 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1646 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1647 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1649 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1650 full 64-bit address. The command
1652 set remoteaddresssize 32
1654 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1655 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1658 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1659 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1661 maint packet heythere
1663 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1664 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1667 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1668 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1669 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1671 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1673 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1674 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1675 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1677 * mask-address variable for Mips
1679 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1680 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1681 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1683 * Higher serial baud rates
1685 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1686 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1687 to achieve all of these rates.)
1691 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1692 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1695 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1697 * New native configurations
1699 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1700 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1701 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1702 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1703 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1704 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1705 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1709 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1710 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1711 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1712 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1713 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1714 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1715 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1716 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1717 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1718 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1719 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1721 * New debugging protocols
1723 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1724 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1725 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1726 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1727 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1728 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1732 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1733 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1738 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1739 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1741 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1743 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1744 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1745 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1747 * Live range splitting
1749 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1750 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1751 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1755 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1756 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1760 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1761 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1762 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1767 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1772 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1773 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1774 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1775 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1776 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1777 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1781 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1782 the symbol at the specified address.
1786 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1787 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1788 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1789 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1790 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1794 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1795 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1796 of most MIPS variants.
1800 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1801 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1802 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1806 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1807 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1808 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1809 the possible architectures.
1811 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1813 * New native configurations
1815 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1816 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1817 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1818 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1819 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1820 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1824 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1825 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1826 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1827 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1828 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1830 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1834 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1835 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1836 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1837 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1838 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1842 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1844 * Windows 95/NT native
1846 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1847 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1848 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1849 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1850 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1852 * dont-repeat command
1854 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1855 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1856 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1857 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1859 * Send break instead of ^C
1861 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1862 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1863 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1865 * Remote protocol timeout
1867 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1868 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1869 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1871 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1873 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1874 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1875 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1876 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1877 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1879 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1880 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1881 automatically on hpux10.
1883 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1885 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1887 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1889 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1890 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1891 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1892 every character. The default value is 1050.
1894 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1896 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1897 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1898 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1899 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1900 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1901 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1903 * Speedups for remote debugging
1905 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1906 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1907 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1909 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1911 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1912 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1914 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1916 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1918 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1919 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1921 * Remote targets use caching
1923 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1924 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1925 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1926 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1927 off' turns the the data cache off.
1929 * Remote targets may have threads
1931 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1932 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1933 gdb/remote.c for details.
1937 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1938 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1939 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1940 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1941 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1942 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1943 sequence is something like
1945 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1947 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1951 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1952 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1953 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1954 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1955 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1956 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1957 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1958 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1962 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1963 but does simplify configuration and building.
1967 GDB now supports hpux10.
1969 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1971 * New native configurations
1973 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1974 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1975 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1976 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1980 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1981 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1982 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1983 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1986 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1988 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1989 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1990 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1991 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1992 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1994 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1996 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1997 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2000 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2002 To execute the command use:
2005 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2006 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2007 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2009 * New `if' and `while' commands
2011 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2012 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2013 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2014 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2015 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2016 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2017 if the expression is zero.
2019 * Fortran source language mode
2021 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2022 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2023 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2024 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2027 * Better HPUX support
2029 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2030 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2031 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2032 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2033 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2039 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2040 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2046 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2047 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2050 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2051 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2053 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2055 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2056 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2057 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2058 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2059 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2060 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2062 * New DOS host serial code
2064 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2065 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2068 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2070 * New "complete" command
2072 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2073 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2075 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2077 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2078 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2080 * Breakpoint hit counts
2082 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2083 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2084 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2085 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2086 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2089 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2091 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2092 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2093 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2095 * Shared library breakpoints
2097 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2098 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2100 * Hardware watchpoints
2102 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2103 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2105 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2109 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2110 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2112 * Improved Irix 5 support
2114 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2116 * Improved HPPA support
2118 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2120 * New native configurations
2122 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2123 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2124 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2125 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2129 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2130 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2133 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2135 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2136 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2140 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2141 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2143 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2145 * Irix 5 is now supported
2149 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2150 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2151 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2152 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2153 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2156 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2158 * User visible changes:
2162 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2163 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2164 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2165 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2166 debugging info for the mips target).
2168 * DEC Alpha native support
2170 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2171 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2172 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2173 Alpha-specific notes.
2175 * Preliminary thread implementation
2177 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2179 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2181 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2182 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2185 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2187 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2188 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2189 call methods, ...etc.
2191 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2193 * User visible changes:
2195 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2196 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2197 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2198 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2200 Filename completion now works.
2202 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2203 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2204 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2206 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2207 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2208 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2209 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2210 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2214 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2215 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2218 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2222 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2223 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2224 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2228 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2229 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2230 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2231 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2232 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2236 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2237 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2238 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2240 * New targets supported
2242 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2243 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2244 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2245 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2246 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2248 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2249 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2250 GO32 memory extender.
2252 * New remote protocols
2254 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2256 * New source languages supported
2258 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2259 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2260 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2263 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2265 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2267 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2268 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2269 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2270 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2271 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2272 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2274 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2276 * Faster and better demangling
2278 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2279 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2280 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2281 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2282 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2283 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2286 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2287 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2288 compiler does not actually implement.
2290 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2292 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2293 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2294 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2295 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2296 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2297 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2300 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2301 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2303 * Improved configure script
2305 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2306 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2307 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2308 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2310 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2311 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2312 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2313 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2314 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2315 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2317 * Documentation improvements
2319 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2320 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2321 before submitting changes.
2323 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2324 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2325 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2326 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2327 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2329 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2330 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2331 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2332 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2333 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2334 around this problem.
2338 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2339 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2340 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2343 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2344 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2346 * New native hosts supported
2348 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2349 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2351 * New targets supported
2353 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2355 * New file formats supported
2357 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2358 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2362 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2364 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2365 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2367 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2368 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2369 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2371 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2372 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2374 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2375 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2376 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2379 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2380 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2381 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2382 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2383 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2385 * Internal improvements
2387 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2388 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2390 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2391 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2392 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2393 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2394 shared code that handles any of them.
2396 * New command line options
2398 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2402 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2403 General Public License.
2405 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2407 * Host/native/target split
2409 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2410 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2411 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2412 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2413 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2415 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2416 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2417 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2418 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2419 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2420 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2421 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2423 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2424 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2425 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2427 * New hosts supported
2429 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2430 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2431 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2433 * New targets supported
2435 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2436 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2438 * New native hosts supported
2440 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2441 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2442 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2444 * New file formats supported
2446 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2447 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2448 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2452 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2453 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2454 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2456 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2458 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2459 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2460 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2461 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2465 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2466 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2467 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2469 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2473 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2474 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2477 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2478 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2480 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2481 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2482 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2483 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2484 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2485 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2487 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2488 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2489 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2490 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2494 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2495 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2496 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2497 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2498 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2500 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2501 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2502 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2503 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2507 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2508 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2509 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2510 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2511 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2512 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2513 each instruction being stepped through.
2515 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2516 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2518 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2519 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2520 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2521 processor with a serial port.
2525 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2526 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2527 supported, and what files each one uses.
2531 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2532 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2533 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2534 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2536 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2537 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2538 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2539 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2543 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2544 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2545 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2546 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2547 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2548 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2550 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2553 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2555 * Better support for C++ function names
2557 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2558 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2559 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2560 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2561 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2563 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2564 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2565 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2566 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2567 for the list of formats.
2569 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2571 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2572 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2573 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2574 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2575 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2576 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2579 * New 'maintenance' command
2581 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2582 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2583 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2585 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2586 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2587 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2588 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2589 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2590 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2592 The following commands are new:
2594 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2595 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2596 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2598 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2600 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2601 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2602 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2603 read after argv processing.
2605 * New hosts supported
2607 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2609 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2611 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2612 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2613 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2614 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2615 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2618 * New targets supported
2620 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2622 * More smarts about finding #include files
2624 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2625 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2626 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2627 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2628 the one that contains your sources.
2630 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2631 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2632 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2634 * Interesting infernals change
2636 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2637 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2638 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2639 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2641 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2643 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2644 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2645 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2647 See the ChangeLog for details.
2649 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2651 * New machines supported (host and target)
2653 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2655 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2657 * New malloc package
2659 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2660 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2661 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2662 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2663 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2664 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2668 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2669 'help info proc' for details.
2671 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2673 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2674 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2677 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2679 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2680 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2681 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2682 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2683 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2684 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2686 * Cross byte order fixes
2688 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2689 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2691 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2693 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2694 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2695 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2696 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2697 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2698 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2699 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2700 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2701 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2702 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2704 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2705 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2706 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2707 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2709 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2710 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2711 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2714 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2716 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2717 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2718 shared across multiple host platforms.
2720 * longjmp() handling
2722 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2723 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2724 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2725 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2729 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2730 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2735 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2736 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2737 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2739 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2741 * New machines supported (host and target)
2743 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2745 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2746 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2748 * New machines supported (target)
2750 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2754 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2755 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2756 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2758 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2759 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2760 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2761 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2762 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2765 * New features for SVR4
2767 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2768 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2769 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2771 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2772 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2773 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2775 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2776 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2778 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2780 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2781 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2782 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2783 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2784 same code linked statically.
2788 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2789 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2790 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2791 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2792 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2793 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2797 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2798 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2799 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2802 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2804 * New machines supported (host and target)
2806 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2807 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2808 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2810 * Almost SCO Unix support
2812 We had hoped to support:
2813 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2814 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2815 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2816 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2818 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2820 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2821 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2822 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2823 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2828 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2829 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2830 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2834 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2835 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2836 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2838 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2840 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2841 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2842 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2844 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2845 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2846 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2847 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2850 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2851 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2852 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2853 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2856 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2857 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2860 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2861 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2862 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2865 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2867 * Improved configuration
2869 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2870 Porting BFD is simpler.
2874 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2875 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2876 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2877 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2881 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2883 * New host supported (not target)
2885 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2888 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2890 * Multiple source language support
2892 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2893 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2894 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2895 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2896 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2897 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2901 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2902 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2903 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2904 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2906 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2907 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2908 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2910 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2911 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2915 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2916 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2917 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2918 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2921 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2923 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2924 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2925 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2926 examining core files.
2930 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2933 * New machines supported (host and target)
2935 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2936 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2937 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2939 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2941 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2943 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2945 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2946 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2947 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2949 * New remote interfaces
2955 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2959 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2961 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2962 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2963 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2964 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2965 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2966 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2967 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2968 stub on the target system.
2970 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2972 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2973 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2974 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2976 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2977 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2980 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2982 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2983 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2985 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2986 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2987 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2989 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2990 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2991 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2992 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2994 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2995 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2996 it is already running. Default is ON.
2998 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2999 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3000 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3001 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3004 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3005 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3006 or the value of the environment variable
3009 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3010 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3013 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3014 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3015 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3017 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3018 history expansion will be performed on
3019 command line input. The default is OFF.
3021 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3022 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3023 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3025 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3026 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3027 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3030 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3031 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3032 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3035 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3036 ``set width'' instead.
3038 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3039 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3040 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3041 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3043 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3046 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3049 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3052 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3055 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3057 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3058 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3059 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3063 * Support for Shared Libraries
3065 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3066 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3067 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3068 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3069 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3070 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3071 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3072 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3074 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3075 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3076 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3078 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3083 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3084 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3085 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3086 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3087 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3088 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3090 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3092 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3094 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3095 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3096 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3099 * C++ multiple inheritance
3101 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3104 * C++ exception handling
3106 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3107 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3108 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3111 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3112 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3113 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3115 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3116 current stack frame.
3119 * Minor command changes
3121 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3122 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3123 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3125 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3126 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3127 frames without printing.
3129 * New directory command
3131 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3132 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3133 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3134 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3135 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3137 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3139 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3142 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3143 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3144 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3145 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob